Unlike annual plants that bloom and complete their life cycle within a year, perennial plants undergo a juvenile phase of several years before flowering and fruiting. Instead of perishing after the reproduction stage, perennials re-enter the process of growing, blooming, and bearing fruits every year. In some perennials, the plants retain leaves throughout their life cycle, while a portion of their shoots undergoes reproductive development annually. Amazingly, some thousand-year-old trees are still blooming and bearing fruits.
Plants respond to diverse environmental stimuli, such as temperature, light and nutrients, to modulate their growth and development processes. After a long period of juvenile phase, perennial plants integrate both environmental and endogenous inputs to determine the initiation of the reproductive phase. Subsequently, the plants will bloom and bear fruits. Temporal and spatial regulation of flowering in perennials determines its reproductive success through several interconnected signaling pathways.
Among perennials, ornamental plants and fruit trees are of particular interest due to direct links of their reproductive success to economic impacts. In agriculture, the timing of flowering affects flower production and subsequently fruit and seed yield. Some species of perennial plants take more than a decade to bloom, and this long juvenile phase severely impedes the progress of breeding. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanism of flowering time control and the applications of such understanding to agronomic practices will contribute to improvement of perennial crop breeding.
The goal of this Research Topic is to explore how perennials make the transition from juvenile phase to reproduction phase, how they bloom and bear fruits year after year, and how the final stage of their life cycle operates. On this basis, another goal is to clarify the process of fruit development in perennial plants.
There are many new and exciting research on the flowering and fruiting of perennials following the discoveries made in model annual plants such as Arabidopsis. This Research Topic will focus on exploring the progress in understanding mechanisms and unique aspects of flowering and fruiting in perennial plants in comparison to annual plants.
We encourage and invite authors to submit articles about flower and fruit development in perennial plants, including fruit trees, garden plants, and other perennial types. We welcome all article types, including but not limited to reviews, mini reviews, and research articles. Themes of this section include but not limited to:
• The initiation and determination of flowering
• The development of single flower and inflorescence
• Mechanisms of flowering time control, sex determination of flowers, and sporophytic and gametophytic incompatibility
• Mechanisms of the development of various types of fruits, factors determining fruit size, fruit color, aroma, and other fruit-quality related traits
• Dormancy, transition from juvenile phase to reproduction phase, and senescence
• Identifying and functional analysis of key genes controlling flower and fruit development
• Screening and development of important molecular markers
• Application of genetic mapping and gene editing technology
• Epigenetic regulation of flower and fruit development, including epigenetic memory mechanisms
Unlike annual plants that bloom and complete their life cycle within a year, perennial plants undergo a juvenile phase of several years before flowering and fruiting. Instead of perishing after the reproduction stage, perennials re-enter the process of growing, blooming, and bearing fruits every year. In some perennials, the plants retain leaves throughout their life cycle, while a portion of their shoots undergoes reproductive development annually. Amazingly, some thousand-year-old trees are still blooming and bearing fruits.
Plants respond to diverse environmental stimuli, such as temperature, light and nutrients, to modulate their growth and development processes. After a long period of juvenile phase, perennial plants integrate both environmental and endogenous inputs to determine the initiation of the reproductive phase. Subsequently, the plants will bloom and bear fruits. Temporal and spatial regulation of flowering in perennials determines its reproductive success through several interconnected signaling pathways.
Among perennials, ornamental plants and fruit trees are of particular interest due to direct links of their reproductive success to economic impacts. In agriculture, the timing of flowering affects flower production and subsequently fruit and seed yield. Some species of perennial plants take more than a decade to bloom, and this long juvenile phase severely impedes the progress of breeding. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanism of flowering time control and the applications of such understanding to agronomic practices will contribute to improvement of perennial crop breeding.
The goal of this Research Topic is to explore how perennials make the transition from juvenile phase to reproduction phase, how they bloom and bear fruits year after year, and how the final stage of their life cycle operates. On this basis, another goal is to clarify the process of fruit development in perennial plants.
There are many new and exciting research on the flowering and fruiting of perennials following the discoveries made in model annual plants such as Arabidopsis. This Research Topic will focus on exploring the progress in understanding mechanisms and unique aspects of flowering and fruiting in perennial plants in comparison to annual plants.
We encourage and invite authors to submit articles about flower and fruit development in perennial plants, including fruit trees, garden plants, and other perennial types. We welcome all article types, including but not limited to reviews, mini reviews, and research articles. Themes of this section include but not limited to:
• The initiation and determination of flowering
• The development of single flower and inflorescence
• Mechanisms of flowering time control, sex determination of flowers, and sporophytic and gametophytic incompatibility
• Mechanisms of the development of various types of fruits, factors determining fruit size, fruit color, aroma, and other fruit-quality related traits
• Dormancy, transition from juvenile phase to reproduction phase, and senescence
• Identifying and functional analysis of key genes controlling flower and fruit development
• Screening and development of important molecular markers
• Application of genetic mapping and gene editing technology
• Epigenetic regulation of flower and fruit development, including epigenetic memory mechanisms