in order to evaluate the effect of different levels of drought stress and nitrogen fertilizer on growth of strawberry plants, present study was conducted in the mazandaran province in 2010. experiment was carried out as factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications. drought stress treatments (30, 50 and 70% maximum allowable depletion of moistur (mad)) and nitrogen...

BACKGROUND Dedicated storage organs in the form of tubers are evolutionary novelties that share a common function but originate in diverse species from different organs. Tubers in potato, Solanum tuberosum, are derived from the swollen tips of specialized basal lateral juvenile shoots, called stolons. Lateral buds of tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, a potato sibling species, only form regular shoo...

Multiple disease resistance is an aim of many plant breeding programs. Previously, novel somatic cell selection was used to generate potato variants of "Russet Burbank" with resistance to common scab caused by infection with an actinomycete pathogen. Coexpression of resistance to powdery scab caused by a protozoan pathogen was subsequently shown. This study sought to define whether this resista...

Gene expression during the potato (Solanum tuberosum) tuber lifecycle was monitored by cDNA-amplified fragment-length polymorphism, and several differentially expressed transcript-derived fragments were isolated. One fragment, named TDFL431, showed high homology to a copper (Cu) chaperone for Cu/zinc superoxide dismutase (CCS). The Ccs protein is responsible for the delivery of Cu to the Cu/zin...

The peptide snakin-2 (StSN2) has been isolated from potato (Solanum tuberosum cv Jaerla) tubers and found to be active (EC(50) = 1-20 microM) against fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. It causes a rapid aggregation of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The corresponding StSN2 cDNA encodes a signal sequence followed by a 15-residue acidic sequence that precedes the mature StSN2 pe...

Strawberry (Fragaria sp.) stands as an interesting model for studying flowering behaviour and its relationship with asexual plant reproduction in polycarpic perennial plants. Strawberry produces both inflorescences and stolons (also called runners), which are lateral stems growing at the soil surface and producing new clone plants. In this study, the flowering and runnering behaviour of two cul...

The perennial stoloniferous herbaceous vine Mikania micrantha H.B.K. is among the most noxious exotic invaders in China and the world. Disturbance can fragment stolons of M. micrantha and disperse these fragments over long distances or bury them in soils at different depths. To test their regeneration capacity, single-node stolon fragments with stolon internode lengths of 0, 3, 6 and 12 cm were...

ABSTRACT Ontogeny of the invasion process by Colletotrichum acutatum and C. fragariae was studied on petioles and stolons of the strawberry cultivar Chandler using light and electron microscopy. The invasion of host tissue by each fungal species was similar; however, each invasion event occurred more rapidly with C. fragariae than with C. acutatum. Following cuticular penetration via an appress...

Somaclonal variation has been observed in many plant species and is an alternative way to create variants and expand the germplasm pool. A large scale tissue culture experiment was conducted with St. Augustinegrass, an important turfgrass species for the southern USA, to induce somaclonal variation to enlarge the germplasm pool for breeding efforts. Using an improved protocol, approximately 790...

Included among the many signals that traffic through the sieve element system are full-length mRNAs that function to respond to the environment and to regulate development. In potato, several mRNAs that encode transcription factors from the three-amino-loop-extension (TALE) superfamily move from leaves to roots and stolons via the phloem to control growth and signal the onset of tuber formation...