The effect of potash biofertilizer and chemical fertilizer was studied on quantitative and qualitative traits of periwinkle in a factorial experiment based on a Randomized Complete Design with three replications, 48 experimental units, and two factors: (1) different methods of potash bio-fertilizer application at four levels of control (B0), seed inoculation (B1), root inoculation (B2) and seed...

Exposure of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) flowers to ethylene evokes the developmental program of petal senescence. The temporal relationship of several aspects of this developmental program following treatment with ethylene was investigated. Exposure of mature, presenescent flowers to 7.5 microliters per liter ethylene for at least 6 hours induced petal in-rolling and premature senescen...

Autophagy is one of the main mechanisms of degradation and remobilization of macromolecules, and it appears to play an important role in petal senescence. However, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms of autophagy in petal senescence. Autophagic processes were observed by electron microscopy and monodansylcadaverine staining of senescing petals of petunia (Petunia hybrida); autophagy...

Identifying the genes regulated by the floral homeotic genes APETALA3 (AP3) and PISTILLATA (PI) is crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to petal and stamen formation. We have used microarray analysis to conduct a broad survey of genes whose expression is affected by AP3 and PI activity. DNA microarrays consisting of 9216 Arabidopsis ESTs were screened with probes corresp...

The optical appearance of many flowers in nature relies on their inherent pigments ("chemical color") as well as on the surface structure of the epidermis ("structural color"). The structural color is created by a combination of regular and irregular micro- and nanosized features. With a red rose petal as a biological template, we have separated the structural coloration from the chemical color...

Sucrose (0.04 to 0.12 m) induces accumulation of both total phenolics and anthocyanin in leaf discs of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) incubated in intermittent light. Abscisic acid (20 muM) and 2-chloroethyl phosphonic acid (60 mum) act synergistically with the sucrose to enhance its induction of both total phenolics and anthocyanin. The magnitude of this interaction depends on leaf age. Nitrate...

Boundary formation is crucial for organ development in multicellular eukaryotes. In higher plants, boundaries that separate the organ primordia from their surroundings have relatively low rates of cell proliferation. This cellular feature is regulated by the actions of certain boundary-specifying genes, whose ectopic expression in organs can cause inhibition of organ growth. Here, we show that ...

We isolated three alleles of an Arabidopsis thaliana gene named ROXY1, which initiates a reduced number of petal primordia and exhibits abnormalities during further petal development. The defects are restricted to the second whorl of the flower and independent of organ identity. ROXY1 belongs to a subgroup of glutaredoxins that are specific for higher plants and we present data on the first cha...

The involvement of PISTILLATA (PI) and APETALA (AP) transcription factors in the development of floral organs has previously been elucidated but little is known about their upstream regulation. In this investigation, two novel mutants generated in Papaver somniferum were analyzed--one with partially petaloid sepals and another having sepaloid petals. Progeny from reciprocal crosses of respectiv...

Coptis (Ranunculaceae) contains 15 species and is one of the pharmaceutically most important plant genera in eastern Asia. Understanding of the evolution of morphological characters and phylogenetic relationships within the genus is very limited. Here, we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the genus based on two plastid and one nuclear markers. The phylogeny was reconstruc...