Plant dormancy research: from environmental control to molecular regulatory networks
Hisayo Yamane, Anil Kumar Singh, Janice E. K. Cooke
Abstract
Annual growth cycles of perennial horticultural and forest woody plant species of temperate and boreal regions can be divided into two phases, namely the growth and dormancy phases. During the dormancy phase, vegetative and reproductive meristems undergo dormancy to withstand subzero winter temperatures. The dormant state of the plant organs can be defined classically as a non-growing latent state, where no visible growth occurs in meristem containing plants structures, such as seeds and buds. In the strictest view of the term, dormancy is considered a state of the meristem in which cell divisions cease, and the meristem is unresponsive to growth-promoting cues until dormancy-breaking cues are perceived by the plant (Rohde and Bhalerao 2007). For more than 30 years, bud dormancy has been distinguished into three types: (i) paradormancy, where growth of the lateral bud is suppressed by actively growing apical bud and is also known as apical...