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The purpose of this study was to explore the expression pattern of miRNA in the process of embryo dormancy and provide a reference for the mechanism of regulating seed dormancy and germination by miRNA. We used high-throughput sequencing technology, bioinformatics analysis and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR(qPCR) technology to sequence, screen and identify miRNAs of dormant and dormant embryos. The results showed that there were 23 811 977, 24 276 695, 20 611 876 and 20 601 811 unique sequences in the four sample libraries during the period of dormancy and dormancy release. MiRNAs are mainly distributed between 21 and 24 nt, among which the length of 24 nt occurred most frequently. A total of 31 known miRNAs were identified, belonging to 13 different families. 93 new miRNAs were predicted by bioinformatics software. Ten miRNAs(mir156 a-5 p, mir160 a-5 p, mir160 h-1, mir169 a-5 p, mir157 d, mir159 a-1, mir395-3, mir156 f-5 p, mir156-2 and mir171 a-3 p) were screened out. In this study, 10 miRNAs related to seed dormancy release were identified. The target genes mainly involved carbohydrate metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction, cell division and growth. The results of qRT-PCR showed that the sequencing results were consistent with the actual results.

We used exogenous GA_3 to break the seed dormancy of Thesium chinense. We used high-throughput sequencing technology was used to sequence the transcriptome of dormant seed embryos and dormancy breaking seed embryos of Th. chinense, and the data was analyzed bioinformatically and systematically. The results showed that exogenous GA_3 could effectively break the seed dormancy of Th. chinense; 73 794 up-regulated genes and 42 776 down regulated genes were obtained by transcriptome sequencing; 116 570 diffe-rential genes were annotated by GO function to GO items such as metabolism process, cell process, cell, cell component, binding and catalytic activity. A total of 133 metabolic pathways were found by Pathway analysis of 26 508 differentially expressed genes. In the process of dormancy release, DEGs were mainly enriched in translation, carbohydrate metabolism, folding, classification, degradation and amino acid metabolism. Based on the annotation results in KEGG database, 20 metabolic pathways related to dormancy release were found. Dormancy release of Th. chinense seeds is a complex biological process, including cell morphology construction, secondary metabolite synthesis, sugar metabolism and plant signal transduction, among which plant hormone signal transduction is one of the key factors to regulate dormancy release. The results of qRT-PCR showed that the sequencing results were consistent with the actual results.

The study aims at exploring the expression of differential genes and related metabolic pathways in the process of seed dormancy release. The dormant embryo and the dormant released embryo of Paris polyphylla var. chinensis were used as the test materials, a new generation high-throughput sequencing methods to sequence the transcriptome of the samples was used to carry out systematic bioinformatics analysis. We obtained 62 882 650 and 62 263 366 clean reads from the DNA libraries of the samples before and after dormancy breaking. A total of 69 248 differentially expressed genes(DEGs) were obtained, 56 426 up-regulated genes and 12 822 down-regulated genes. There are 138 267 differentially expressed genes in the process of embryo dormancy release, which were annotated by GO function to 58 subclasses of biological processes, molecular functions and cell components. The annotated differentially expressed genes were closely related to metabolic processes, biological regulation, cell component synthesis and enzyme catalytic activity. We found 139 metabolic pathways through pathway analysis of 58 722 differentially expressed genes. Before and after dormancy, DEGs were mainly enriched in carbon metabolism, secondary metabolite biosynthesis and polysaccharide metabolism. Based on the annotation results in KEGG database, we found 16 metabolic pathways related to the dormancy release of P. polyhoylla var. chinensis. A large number of differentially expressed genes were involved in embryo morphogenesis, polysaccharide decomposition and protein synthesis during seed development and dormancy release. It involves the interaction of multiple metabolic pathways and constitutes a complex regulation network for dormancy relief.

The content changes of chemical components in different phenological phase of the cultivated Polygala tenuifolia is one of the important factors for determination of the best harvest time in the production practice. In this study, the digital gene expression (DGE) profiles of the cultivated P. tenuifolia were analyzed in different phenological phase (flowering fruit bearing stage, wilting stage, dormancy stage). The differentially expressed genes were found in the biosynthesis of chemical composition in P. tenuifolia, and the representational ones were validated by RT-q PCR. Then, the key enzymes(CYP450s and UGTs) involved in the downstream of the triterpenoid saponins biosynthesis pathway in P. tenuifolia were predicted through the correlation analysis of gene expression. The number of down-regulated genes was more than that of up-regulated in P. tenuifolia from flowering fruit bearing stage to dormancy stage. Six differentially expressed genes (HMGS, PMK, FPPS, SQS, SE, β-AS) and five (PAL, C4 H, 4CL, CAD, peroxidase) were annotated to the triterpenoid saponins and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway in P. tenuifolia, respectively. Compared to wilting and dormancy stages, the saponins, xanthones, and lignins were largely synthesized at the flowering fruit bearing stage of P. tenuifolia. Furthermore, UGT83A1, CYP716B1, CYP98A3, CYP86B1, and CYP94A1 may be the part of key enzymes in the downstream of the triterpenoid saponins biosynthesis pathway in P. tenuifolia. This study provides evidence to support the correctness of traditional harvest time of P. tenuifolia at the level of transcription, and lays the scientific foundation for gene cloning and functional verification of CYP450 s and UGTs in the downstream of the triterpenoid saponins biosynthesis pathway in P. tenuifolia in the future.

Taking 6-year-old "Chunjie" peach as test material, and the peach in natural condition as the control, this paper investigated induced effects of long-day and short-day photoperiod on dormancy and responses of chilling resistance to photoperiodic induction during dormancy induction process. The results showed that the trees of long-day and short-day treatments could both enter dormancy induction under the gradually decreasing temperature. The long-day treatment was 1 week later than the control, while the short-day treatment was 1 week earlier. The total water content and free water content both decreased, and the bound water content and the ratio of bound water/total water increased with the development of dormancy. SOD and CAT activities changed as unimodal curve during dormancy induction, and the peak values appeared at the late stage of dormancy induction, POD activity decreased rapidly after the start of dormancy induction, and rebounded to form a small peak at the late stage of dormancy induction. The soluble protein content declined, proline and malonaldehyde (MDA) increased continuously, and the injury rate increased. Long-day could increase SOD and CAT activities and proline content, alleviate the decline of POD activity and soluble protein content, and reduce the growth rate of MDA and injury rate, which indicated leaf damage was lighter in long-day treatment than in the control. However, they changed differently under short-day treatment, especially the leaf injury rate was higher than the control, exhibiting a lower chilling resistance. Prolonging illumination was suggested to improve leaf chilling resistance in practical production if environmental temperature permitted.

High chilling requirement grape (Vitis vinifera-V. labrusca cv. Summer Black) was used to evaluate its dormancy under short sunlight day (SD), long sunlight day (LD) and natural condition (CK). The results indicated that grape bud dormancy could be induced by natural low temperature and short sunlight alone or together. Short sunlight was the main contributor to the dormancy of grape bud, followed by natural low temperature. SD had more effect on dormancy induction under the same temperature when compared with LD. The grape dormancy induction stopped when the total respiratory rate reached the highest level. During the dormancy induction period, the proportion of pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) operation activity or capacity to total respiratory rate increased from 16.0% to 20.1% or 22.3% to 26.0%, respectively; similarly, the proportion of operation activity or capacity of alternate pathway to total respiratory rate rapidly increased, i.e., from 19.4% to 27.3% or 38.2% to 46.8%. Both low temperature and short sunlight could induce change of respiratory pathway on electron transport chain level.

In order to explore reasonable artificial cultivation pattern of Thesium chinense, the biological characteristics and nutrients change in the process of winter dormancy of T. chinense was studied. The phenological period of T. chinense was observed by using fixed-point notation and the starch grains changes were determined dynamically by PAS-vanadium iron hematoxylin staixjing method. Soluble sugar and starch content were measured by anthrone-sulfuric acid method and amylase activity was determined by DN'S method. The results showed that the normal life cycle of T. chinense was two years. T. chinense was growing by seed in the first year, but growing by the root neck bud in the second year. During the process of dormancy, starch and soluble sugar could mutual transformation in different periods. T. chinense had sufficient carbohydrate to maintain growth and also a lot of small molecules to improve their ability to fight against adversity.

The effect of low temperature storage on dormancy breaking, sprouting and growth after planting of Tulipa edulis was studied. The results showed that starch content and activity of amylases significantly decreased during 10 weeks of cold storage, soluble protein content raised at first then decreased, and the peak appeared at the 6th week. However, total soluble sugar content which in- creased slowly at first than rose sharply and reducing sugar content increased during the storage duration. The bulbs with cold storage treatment rooted in the 6th week, which was about 2 weeks earlier than room temperature storage, but there were less new roots in the late period of storage. After stored at a low temperature, bud lengths were longer than that with room temperature treatment. Cold storage treatment could promote earlier emergence, shorten germination time, prolong growth period and improve the yield of bulb, but rarely affect the emergence rate. It was not beneficial to flowering and fruiting. The results indicated that 6-8 weeks of cold storage was deemed to be the key period of dormancy breaking preliminary.

Long-day and short-day photoperiods were set artificially, with natural condition as the control, to examine photosynthetic parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence transient kinetics of 6-year-old 'Chunjie' peach cultivar (Prunus persica cv. Chunjie), and to investigate the effects of photoperiod on photosynthesis of the northern deciduous fruit trees. The tree advanced into the dormancy induction period under the short-day condition, and delayed under the long-day condition. In the dormancy induction period, the leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and stomatal conductance (g(s)) decreased, and the intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) increased, suggesting that the Pn decreased because of non-stomatal limitation. Maximum quantum yield for primary photochemistry (PhiPo, or Fv/Fm), potential activity (Fv/Fo), probability that a trapped exciton moved an electron into the electron transport chain beyond Q(A)-(Psi(o)) and performance index on absorption basis (Pl(ABS)) decreased in the dormancy induction period, suggesting that the electron transport capacity of photosynthetic electron transport chain was inhibited, possibly due to the damage to downstream electron transport chain (after Q(A)- acceptor) of PS II reaction center. Long-day photoperiod improved Pn in the dormancy induction period, and reduced the range of decline in PI(ABS) and the injured degree of photosystem. Short-day photoperiod deepened and accelerated the damage to photosynthetic apparatus significantly. The induced effect of photoperiod was associated with the dormancy processes.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an excellent model plant in elucidation of cereal domestication. Loss of seed shattering, weakened dormancy, and changes in plant architecture were thought to be three key events in the rice domestication and creating the high-yield, uniform-germinating, and densely-planting modern rice. Loss of shattering is considered to be the direct morphological evidence for identifying domesticated rice. Two major shattering QTLs, Sh4 and qSH1, have displayed different domestication histories. Weakened seed dormancy is essential for synchronous germination in agricultural production. Genes Sdr4, qSD7-1, and qSD12 impose a global and complementary adaptation strategies in controlling seed dormancy. The prostate growth habit of wild rice is an adaptation to disturbed habitats, while the erect growth habit of rice cultivars meet the needs of compact planting, and such a plant architecture is mainly controlled by PROG1. The outcrossing habit of wild rice promotes propagation of domestication genes among different populations, while the self-pollinating habit of cultivated rice facilitates fixation of domestication genes. Currently, the researches on rice domestication mainly focus on individual genes or multiple neutral markers, and much less attention has been paid to the evolution of network controlling domestication traits. With the progress in functional genomics research, the molecular mechanism of domestication traits is emerging. Rice domestication researches based on network will be more comprehensive and better reflect rice domestica-tion process. Here, we reviewed most progresses in molecular mechanisms of rice domestication traits, in order to provide the new insights for rice domestication and molecular breeding.

Bupleurum chinense is a commonly used Chinese medicinal material, which has been used medicinally in China for over 2000 years, the development of it is of great value. There have been great advances of studies on its embryology and seed biology in recent years. In this paper, we make a review of the growth of its embryo and fruit, the characteristics of dormancy and storage and the germination of its seed. Besides, we summarize the reasons of its low germination rate and the achievements in improving the situation, for the purpose of providing reference in research on seed physiology of B. chinense.

The present study proposes a new approach to producing accurate estimates of fall dormancy (FD) in alfalfa in a rapid manner. Using near infrared spectroscopy, the approach produces results fast without causing damage to samples. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy was applied to measuring the spectra of samples. Then principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on the measurements. The top ten principal components were selected based on their cumulative contribution rates to build a support vector machine (SVM) model. Detailed analysis and discussions were conducted over their parameter and kernel classifications. The experiment found that when c = 0.339 2 and g = 32, the accuracy of the predictions of the test set can reach 98.182%. Therefore the approach can estimate the FD in alfalfa in a rapid and accurate manner. Moreover, it was compared with other approaches such as principal component regression, partial least squares regression, BP neural networks, and LVQ neural networks. The comparisons have shown that the PCA-SVM model can effectively address the small-sample-size problem and avoid local minimum.