DRM1 and DRM2 expression regulation: potential role of splice variants in response to stress and environmental factors in Arabidopsis.

The DRM1/ARP gene family is increasingly exhibiting associations with stress conditions at the transcript level. Traditionally correlated with dormancy, increases in transcript levels in response to various treatments have also been reported in various species. As alternative transcript splicing is common in stress conditions, the splice variants of AtDRM1 and AtDRM2 were assessed further in this study.

Actinidia DRM1--an intrinsically disordered protein whose mRNA expression is inversely correlated with spring budbreak in kiwifruit.

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are a relatively recently defined class of proteins which, under native conditions, lack a unique tertiary structure whilst maintaining essential biological functions. Functional classification of IDPs have implicated such proteins as being involved in various physiological processes including transcription and translation regulation, signal transduction and protein modification. Actinidia DRM1 (Ade DORMANCY ASSOCIATED GENE 1), represents a robust dormancy marker whose mRNA transcript expression exhibits a strong inverse correlation with the onset of growth following periods of physiological dormancy.

A rapid transcriptional activation is induced by the dormancy-breaking chemical hydrogen cyanamide in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) buds.

Budbreak in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) can be poor in locations that have warm winters with insufficient winter chilling. Kiwifruit vines are often treated with the dormancy-breaking chemical hydrogen cyanamide (HC) to increase and synchronize budbreak. This treatment also offers a tool to understand the processes involved in budbreak.