Most important breeding goals in ornamental crops are plant appearance and flower characteristics where selection is visually performed on direct offspring of crossings. We developed an image analysis toolbox for the acquisition of flower and petal images from cultivated carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) that was validated by a detailed analysis of flower and petal size and shape in 78 comme...

The phytohormone ethylene is essential for senescence in many fruits and flowers. In the biosynthesis of ethylene in plants, the conversion of S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) to 1-aminocyclopropane1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and the conversion of ACC to ethylene are catalyzed by ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO), respectively (Adams and Yang, 1979). Using a cDNA clone representing carnation ACO ...

Dianthus spiculifolius, a perennial herbaceous flower and a member of the Caryophyllaceae family, has strong resistance to cold and drought stresses. To explore the transcriptional responses of D. spiculifolius to individual and combined stresses, we performed transcriptome sequencing of seedlings under normal conditions or subjected to cold treatment (CT), simulated drought treatment (DT), or ...

Dianthus caryophyllus L. is an important floricultural crop species throughout the world, specially in Eurasia. The present study was conducted to evaluate the nine Dianthus genotypes, including normal and mutagen treated, to assess the magnitude of variability and to pick up the heritable component of variation present in the quantitative traits. The analysis of variance revealed highly signif...

Seven populations of Heterodera trifolii from Arkansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Australia plus 3 or 4 single-cyst isolates (SCI) from each population were tested for reproduction on seven species of plants to compare the host preferences among and within populations. Common lespedeza, Kummerowia striata cv. Kobe, was a good host for all populations and isolates. Therefore, a plant was consi...

The balance between reactions involving free radicals and processes which ameliorate their effect plays an important role in the regulation of plant senescence. In this study a method was developed to isolate peroxisomes and mitochondria from carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L. cv Ember) petals. Based on electron microscopy and marker enzyme levels, the proportion of peroxisomes to mitochondria...

The lipid microviscosity of microsomal membranes from senescing cut carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L. cv. White Sim) flowers rises with advancing senescence. The increase in membrane microviscosity is initiated within 3 to 4 days of cutting the flowers and coincides temporally with petal-inrolling denoting the climacteric-like rise in ethylene production. Treatment of young cut flowers with a...

An in vivo assay for phospholipase D (PLD; EC 3.1.4.4) activity, based on its transphosphatidylation property, is described in detail and was used to study putative post-translational regulation mechanisms of PLD activity in carnation [Dianthus caryophyllus L.) petals. A variety of agents was applied to petal discs. The calmodulin (CaM) antagonists propranolol, /V-(6-aminohexyl)-5-chloro-1 -nap...