A Proposed Saffron Soilless Cultivation System for a Quality Spice as Certified by Genetic Traceability.

Saffron ( L.) is one of the most expensive spices in the world due to its strong market demand combined with its labor-intensive production process, which needs a lot of labor and has significant costs. New cultivation methods and traceability systems are required to improve and valorize local Italian saffron production.

Transcriptome-guided breeding for Paspalum notatum: producing apomictic hybrids with enhanced omega-3 content.

Transcriptomics- and FAME-GC-MS-assisted apomixis breeding generated Paspalum notatum hybrids with clonal reproduction and increased α-linolenic acid content, offering the potential to enhance livestock product's nutritional quality and reduce methane emissions A low omega-6:omega-3 fatty acid ratio is considered an indicator of the nutritional impact of milk fat on human health. In ruminants, major long-chain fatty acids, such as linoleic acid (18:2, omega-6) and α-linolenic acid (18:3, omega-3), originate from dietary sources and reach the milk via the bloodstream. Since forages are the primary source of long-chain fatty acids for such animals, they are potential targets for improving milk lipid composition.

Auxin response factor 10 insensitive to miR160regulation induces apospory-like phenotypes in .

The megaspore mother cell (MMC) arises from somatic cells in the ovule primordium and enters meiosis to generate four megaspores. Only the most chalazal (functional megaspore, FM) survives, undergoing a series of mitoses to form the female gametophyte. We show that this commitment to the sexual germline requires spatial regulation of ().

Chromosome-scale genome assembly and annotation of Paspalum notatum Flüggé var. saurae.

Paspalum notatum Flüggé is an economically important subtropical fodder grass that is widely used in the Americas. Here, we report a new chromosome-scale genome assembly and annotation of a diploid biotype collected in the center of origin of the species. Using Oxford Nanopore long reads, we generated a 557.

Genome-wide epigenetic modifications in sports horses during training as an adaptation phenomenon.

With his bicentennial breeding history based on athletic performance, the Thoroughbred horse can be considered the equine sport breed. Although genomic and transcriptomic tools and knowledge are at the state of the art in equine species, the epigenome and its modifications in response to environmental stimuli, such as training, are less studied. One of the major epigenetic modifications is cytosine methylation at 5' of DNA molecules.

Development and Application of a Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequence Marker () Linked to the Locus Conferring Resistance to in Pepper ( L.).

causes destructive disease in several crop species, including pepper ( L.). Resistance in this species is physiologically and genetically complex due to many virulence phenotypes and different QTLs and R genes among the identified resistance sources.

Evolutionary studies of the bHLH transcription factors belonging to MBW complex: their role in seed development.

Background And Aims: The MBW complex consist of proteins belonging to three major families (MYB, bHLH and WDR) involved in various processes throughout plant development: epidermal cell development, mucilage secretory cells and flavonoid biosynthesis. Recently, it has been reported that TT8, encoding a bHLH transcription factor, is involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in the seed coat and it also plays a role in bypassing the postzygotic barrier resulting from an unbalance in genetic loads of the parental lines. Here, we focus on the functional evolution, in seed development, of the bHLH proteins that are part of the MBW complex, complemented with a literature review.

Novel CRISPR/Cas technology in the realm of algal bloom biomonitoring: Recent trends and future perspectives.

In conjunction with global climate change, progressive ocean warming, and acclivity in pollution and anthropogenic eutrophication, the incidence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) continue to expand in distribution, frequency, and magnitude. Algal bloom-related toxins have been implicated in human health disorders and ecological dysfunction and are detrimental to the national and global economy. Biomonitoring programs based on traditional monitoring protocols were characterised by some limitations that can be efficiently overdone using the CRISPR/Cas technology.

Apomixis: oh, what a tangled web we have!

Apomixis is a complex evolutionary trait with many possible origins. Here we discuss various clues and causes, ultimately proposing a model harmonizing the three working hypotheses on the topic. Asexual reproduction through seeds, i.

From tetraploid to diploid, a pangenomic approach to identify genes lost during synthetic diploidization of .

Introduction: In , commonly known as weeping lovegrass, a synthetic diploidization event of the facultative apomictic tetraploid Tanganyika INTA cv. originated from the sexual diploid Victoria cv. Apomixis is an asexual reproduction by seeds in which the progeny is genetically identical to the maternal plant.

Characterization of Differentially Expressed Genes under Salt Stress in Olive.

Climate change, currently taking place worldwide and also in the Mediterranean area, is leading to a reduction in water availability and to groundwater salinization. Olive represents one of the most efficient tree crops to face these scenarios, thanks to its natural ability to tolerate moderate salinity and drought. In the present work, four olive cultivars (Koroneiki, Picual, Royal de Cazorla and Fadak86) were exposed to high salt stress conditions (200 mM of NaCl) in greenhouse, in order to evaluate their tolerance level and to identify key genes involved in salt stress response.

Epigenetic Modifications in Plant Development and Reproduction.

Plants are exposed to highly fluctuating effects of light, temperature, weather conditions, and many other environmental factors throughout their life. As sessile organisms, unlike animals, they are unable to escape, hide, or even change their position. Therefore, the growth and development of plants are largely determined by interaction with the external environment.

Environmental and Genetic Factors Affecting Apospory Expressivity in Diploid .

In angiosperms, gametophytic apomixis (clonal reproduction through seeds) is strongly associated with polyploidy and hybridization. The trait is facultative and its expressivity is highly variable between genotypes. Here, we used an F progeny derived from diploid apomictic (aposporic) genotypes of and two F families, derived from F hybrids with different apospory expressivity (%AES), to analyze the influence of the environment and the transgenerational transmission of the trait.

Differential Methylation Patterns in Apomictic vs. Sexual Genotypes of the Diplosporous Grass .

DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism by which a methyl group is added to a cytosine or an adenine. When located in a gene/regulatory sequence it may repress or de-repress genes, depending on the context and species. is an apomictic grass in which facultative genotypes increases the frequency of sexual pistils triggered by epigenetic mechanisms.

Identification of Putative Virulence Genes by DNA Methylation Studies in the Cereal Pathogen .

DNA methylation mediates organisms' adaptations to environmental changes in a wide range of species. We investigated if a such a strategy is also adopted by in regulating virulence toward its natural hosts. A virulent strain of this fungus was consecutively sub-cultured for 50 times (once a week) on potato dextrose agar.

A Review of Unreduced Gametes and Neopolyploids in Alfalfa: How to Fill the Gap between Well-Established Meiotic Mutants and Next-Generation Genomic Resources.

The gene flow mediated by unreduced gametes between diploid and tetraploid plants of the complex is pivotal for alfalfa breeding. Sexually tetraploidized hybrids could represent the best way to exploit progressive heterosis simultaneously derived from gene diversity, heterozygosity, and polyploidy. Moreover, unreduced gametes combined with parthenogenesis (i.

Differential Epigenetic Marks Are Associated with Apospory Expressivity in Diploid Hybrids of .

Apomixis seems to emerge from the deregulation of preexisting genes involved in sexuality by genetic and/or epigenetic mechanisms. The trait is associated with polyploidy, but diploid individuals of can form aposporous embryo sacs and develop clonal seeds. Moreover, diploid hybrid families presented a wide apospory expressivity variation.

The Role of APOSTART in Switching between Sexuality and Apomixis in .

The production of seeds without sex is considered the holy grail of plant biology. The transfer of apomixis to various crop species has the potential to transform plant breeding, since it will allow new varieties to retain valuable traits thorough asexual reproduction. Therefore, a greater molecular understanding of apomixis is fundamental.

A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms.

Apomixis (agamospermy) is asexual reproduction by seed. In angiosperms it represents an easy byway of life cycle renewal through gamete-like cells that give rise to maternal embryos without ploidy reduction (meiosis) and ploidy restitution (syngamy). The origin of apomixis still represents an unsolved problem, as it may be either evolved from sex or the other way around.

Molecular Identification of the "Facciuta Della Valnerina" Local Goat Population Reared in the Umbria Region, Italy.

Italy holds important genetic resources of small ruminant breeds. By distinguishing goat breeds at the DNA level, certification of products from specific breeds can be valorized. The aim of this study was to establish the genetic identity of Facciuta della Valnerina, a local goat population of Italy, compared with the cosmopolitan breeds, Saanen and Camosciata delle Alpi, reared in the same geographic area.

Exploring Heterosis in Melon ( L.).

Heterosis is the superiority of an F hybrid over its parents. Since this phenomenon is still unclear in melon, a half diallel experiment based on eight genetically distant breeding lines was conducted in six environments of Central Italy, assessing commercially important traits: yield, total soluble solids (TSS), and days to ripening (DTR). To estimate the additive (general combining ability; GCA) and the non-additive gene effects (specific combining ability; SCA), yield was analyzed by Griffing's methods two and four, and the results were compared to the GGE (Genotype plus Genotype by Environment interaction) biplot methodology; TSS and earliness were evaluated only by Griffing's method four.