Publications by authors named "Andrea Cavallini"

(Bertoni) is a highly valuable crop for the steviol glycoside content in its leaves, which are no-calorie sweeteners hundreds of times more potent than sucrose. The presence of health-promoting phenolic compounds, particularly flavonoids, in the leaf of adds further nutritional value to this crop. Although all these secondary metabolites are highly desirable in leaves, the genes regulating the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds and the shared gene network between the regulation of biosynthesis of steviol glycosides and phenolic compounds still need to be investigated in this species.

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UV-B treatment deeply influences plant physiology and biochemistry, especially by activating the expression of responsive genes involved in UV-B acclimation through a UV-B-specific perception mechanism. Although the UV-B-related molecular responses have been widely studied in , relatively few research reports deepen the knowledge on the influence of post-harvest UV-B treatment on fruit. In this work, a transcriptomic approach is adopted to investigate the transcriptional modifications occurring in the peel of UV-B-treated peach ( L.

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Genome divergence by repeat proliferation and/or loss is a process that plays a crucial role in species evolution. Nevertheless, knowledge of the variability related to repeat proliferation among species of the same family is still limited. Considering the importance of the Asteraceae family, here we present a first contribution towards the metarepeatome of five Asteraceae species.

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  • The WUSCHEL-related homeobox family is a group of transcription factors that play a key role in plant development and stress response, identified for the first time in sunflowers.
  • In this study, researchers found 18 related genes in sunflowers, sorted into three main groups, and confirmed their structural and functional similarities.
  • The genes were shown to have specific expression patterns during critical growth stages, highlighting their importance in sunflower development and providing a foundation for future research on this valuable crop.
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  • Transposable elements (TEs) are key to genetic diversity and evolution in eukaryotes, leading to the creation of exapted transposable element genes (ETEs).
  • A study on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) identified 20,016 possible ETEs, with 3,530 validated, using TE-specific Hidden Markov Models to analyze their genomic characteristics.
  • ETEs showed varying expression under stress conditions and were mostly unique to sunflowers, suggesting their specific role in evolution while some had conserved functions across related species.
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Lettuce is widely used for its healthy properties, and it is of interest to increase them with minimal environmental impact. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) in lettuce plants ( L. cv.

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Blackberries (Rubus spp.) are the fourth most economically important berry crop worldwide. Genome assemblies and annotations have been developed for Rubus species in subgenus Idaeobatus, including black raspberry (R.

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is one of the most important crops belonging to the Asteraceae family. Stevia is cultivated all over the world as it represents a valid natural alternative to artificial sweeteners thanks to its leaves, which produce steviol glycosides that have high sweetening power and reduced caloric value. In this work, the stevia genome sequence was used to isolate and characterise full-length long-terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTR-REs), which account for more than half of the genome.

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The current view of plant genome evolution proposes that genome size has mainly been determined by polyploidisation and amplification/loss of transposons, with a minor role played by other repeated sequences, such as tandem repeats. In cultivated olive ( subsp. var.

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The sunflower ( L.) is among the most widely cultivated crops in the world due to the oilseed production. Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are low molecular mass proteins encoded by a broad multigenic family in higher plants, showing a vast range of functions; these proteins have not been characterised in sunflower at the genomic level.

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In this paper, a pioneer partial discharge (PD) loop antenna sensor is presented and examined. It is made of a 70-turn square planar inductor with a side length of 1.8 mm, which is fabricated on top of a silicon substrate in complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology.

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Fig trees ( L.) are commonly grown in the Mediterranean area, where salinity is an increasing problem in coastal areas. Young, fruiting plants of cv.

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Several dietary strategies were adopted to reduce saturated fatty acids and increase beneficial fatty acids (FA) for human health. Few studies are available about the pathways/genes involved in these processes. Illumina RNA-sequencing was used to investigate changes in the ovine mammary gland transcriptome following supplemental feeding with 20% extruded linseed.

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Background: Long Terminal Repeat retrotransposons (LTR-REs) are repetitive DNA sequences that constitute a large part of the genome. The improvement of sequencing technologies and sequence assembling strategies has achieved genome sequences with much greater reliability than those of the past, especially in relation to repetitive DNA sequences.

Results: In this study, we analysed the genome of Ficus carica L.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied the pseudogene complements in five plant species—four dicots (Arabidopsis thaliana, Vitis vinifera, Populus trichocarpa, and Phaseolus vulgaris) and one monocot (Oryza sativa)—finding a notable variation in pseudogene formation across these plants.
  • V. vinifera had a higher number of retro-pseudogenes compared to the others, while the study highlighted that pseudogenes generally exhibited greater genomic dispersion and fragmentation than functional genes.
  • Different duplication modes (whole genome, tandem, proximal, transposed, and dispersed) were analyzed, revealing that tandem and proximal duplications led to more pseudogen
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Transposable element activity can be harmful to the host's genome integrity, but it can also provide selective advantages. One strategy to cope with transposons is epigenetic control through DNA base modifications. We report the non-canonic DNA modification dynamics of fig ( L.

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Article Synopsis
  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are crucial for enhancing plant growth and nutrient uptake in both natural and agricultural environments.
  • The study utilized RNA sequencing to analyze the specific genes expressed by Rhizoglomus irregulare during its life cycle at two different times following its introduction to Helianthus annuus (sunflower).
  • Key findings included early-stage transcripts related to cellular structure and signaling, and later-stage genes involved in nutrient transport and storage, highlighting the importance of these molecular changes for understanding the beneficial role of AMF in plant health and ecosystem diversity.
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  • - Seagrasses primarily reproduce through vegetative propagation, which may lead to less genetic diversity in their populations.
  • - The study examined the activity of transposable elements, specifically retrotransposons, in seagrass leaves using cDNA sequencing to see how active these elements were in different environmental conditions.
  • - Results showed that most retrotransposons were minimally expressed, with only nine showing significant transcription levels, suggesting that while retrotransposon activity is limited, these active elements could still introduce some structural variations in seagrass genetics.
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Much has been said about sunflower ( L.) retrotransposons, representing the majority of the sunflower's repetitive component. By contrast, class II transposons remained poorly described within this species, as they present low sequence conservation and are mostly lacking coding domains, making the identification and characterization of these transposable elements difficult.

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The final stage of leaf ontogenesis is represented by senescence, a highly regulated process driven by a sequential cellular breakdown involving, as the first step, chloroplast dismantling with consequent reduction of photosynthetic efficiency. Different processes, such as pigment accumulation, could protect the vulnerable photosynthetic apparatus of senescent leaves. Although several studies have produced transcriptomic data on foliar senescence, just few works have attempted to explain differences in red and green leaves throughout ontogenesis.

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Long terminal repeats (LTR) retrotransposons have a major role in determining genome size, structure and function, thanks to their ability to transpose. We performed a meta-analysis of LTR-retrotransposon expression in roots of sunflower plantlets treated with different plant hormones, chemicals and NaCl. By using Illumina cDNA libraries, available from public repositories, we measured the number of reads matching the retrotranscriptase domains isolated from a whole genome library of retrotransposons.

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Due to DNA heterozygosity and repeat content, assembly of non-model plant genomes is challenging. Herein, we report a high-quality genome reference of one of the oldest known domesticated species, fig (Ficus carica L.), using Pacific Biosciences single-molecule, real-time sequencing.

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  • A comparative analysis of the barley Frost-resistance-H2 locus was conducted between the resistant cultivar 'Nure' and the susceptible cultivar 'Morex', revealing significant copy number variation (CNV) in the 'Nure' cultivar.
  • The study found that 'Nure' has multiple copies of specific genetic regions (HvCBF4-HvCBF2A and HvCBF4-HvCBF2B), while 'Morex' has only one copy, indicating genetic variation related to frost resistance.
  • Expression patterns of key genes (HvCBF2A and HvCBF14) were linked to frost resistance under different light and temperature conditions, suggesting that these genes interact complexly with regulatory elements in response
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The dynamics of long-terminal-repeat retrotransposons in two poplar species (Populus deltoides and P. nigra) and in an interspecific hybrid, recently synthesized, were investigated by analyzing the genomic abundance and transcription levels of a collection of 828 full-length retroelements identified in the genome sequence of P. trichocarpa, all occurring also in the genomes of P.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Andrea Cavallini"

  • - Recent research by Andrea Cavallini focuses on the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of beneficial compounds in various plant species, particularly emphasizing transcriptomic analyses to understand regulatory networks in crops like Stevia and peach fruits.
  • - His work also explores the evolutionary dynamics of plant genomes, including the analysis of transposable elements and repeat proliferation in the Asteraceae family, contributing to the understanding of genetic variability among related species.
  • - Additionally, Cavallini investigates the impact of environmental factors, such as UV-B exposure, on the physiological responses of fruits, aiming to enhance nutritional qualities and agricultural practices for better crop yield under stress conditions.