Abstract
The perennial life strategy of temperate trees relies on establishing a dormant stage during winter to survive unfavorable conditions. To overcome this dormant stage, trees require cool (i.e., chilling) temperatures as an environmental cue. Numerous approaches have tried to decipher the physiology of dormancy, but these efforts have usually remained relatively narrowly focused on particular regulatory or metabolic processes, recently integrated and linked by transcriptomic studies. This work aimed to synthesize existing knowledge on dormancy into a general conceptual framework to enhance dormancy comprehension. The proposed conceptual framework covers four physiological processes involved in dormancy progression: (i) transport at both whole-plant and cellular level, (ii) phytohormone dynamics, (iii) genetic and epigenetic regulation, and (iv) dynamics of nonstructural carbohydrates. We merged the regulatory levels into a seasonal framework integrating the environmental signals (i.e., temperature and photoperiod) that trigger each dormancy phase.
Highlights
In the context of climate change, winter dormancy in temperate forest and fruit trees is increasingly attracting the attention of both scientists and growers
Transcriptomics [27], experimental approaches that contributed to dormancy knowledge [28], Reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity [24], terminology [16], self-organization of the shoot apical meristem [29], DORMANCY ASSOCIATED MADS-box (DAM) genes [30], epigenetic regulation [23], and the impacts of climate change on fruit and nut tree phenology [3,31]
Among these processes are the restoration of the symplastic field by cell-to-cell communication in the shoot apical meristem [82,83], expression of DAM5 and DAM6 genes [73]
Summary
In the context of climate change, winter dormancy in temperate forest and fruit trees is increasingly attracting the attention of both scientists and growers. Epigenetic mechanisms that modify gene expression patterns without any changes to the DNA sequence appear to be involved in mediating dormancy release in several temperate fruit tree species [23]. Transcriptomics [27], experimental approaches that contributed to dormancy knowledge [28], ROS activity [24], terminology [16], self-organization of the shoot apical meristem [29], DAM genes [30], epigenetic regulation [23], and the impacts of climate change on fruit and nut tree phenology [3,31]. We group the environmental signals such as photoperiod and temperature might trigger transitions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
