Flowering time: Soybean adapts to the tropics.

Soybean plants - the source of tofu, as well as soybean milk and oil - flower quickly under short-day photoperiods typical of low latitudes. A new study characterises how natural variation in soybean SOC1 floral-promoting genes confers adaptation to different photoperiods.

Natural Variation in Vitamin B and Vitamin B Contents in Rice Germplasm.

Insufficient dietary intake of micronutrients contributes to the onset of deficiencies termed hidden hunger-a global health problem affecting approximately 2 billion people. Vitamin B (thiamine) and vitamin B (pyridoxine) are essential micronutrients because of their roles as enzymatic cofactors in all organisms. Metabolic engineering attempts to biofortify rice endosperm-a poor source of several micronutrients leading to deficiencies when consumed monotonously-have led to only minimal improvements in vitamin B and B contents.

Enhancement of vitamin B levels in rice expressing Arabidopsis vitamin B biosynthesis de novo genes.

Vitamin B (pyridoxine) is vital for key metabolic reactions and reported to have antioxidant properties in planta. Therefore, enhancement of vitamin B content has been hypothesized to be a route to improve resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Most of the current studies on vitamin B in plants are on eudicot species, with monocots remaining largely unexplored.

Genes Are Up-regulated by Environmental Cues That Promote Flowering.

Like , the flowering of the legume is promoted by long day (LD) photoperiod and vernalization. However, there are differences in the molecular mechanisms involved, with orthologs of two key regulators, () and (), being absent or not having a role in flowering time function in . In , the MADS-box transcription factor gene, (), plays a key role in integrating the photoperiodic and vernalization pathways.

Vitamin B1 diversity and characterization of biosynthesis genes in cassava.

Vitamin B1, which consists of the vitamers thiamin and its phosphorylated derivatives, is an essential micronutrient for all living organisms because it is required as a metabolic cofactor in several enzymatic reactions. Genetic diversity of vitamin B1 biosynthesis and accumulation has not been investigated in major crop species other than rice and potato. We analyzed cassava germplasm for accumulation of B1 vitamers.