Abstract
Carnation is one of the most important species on the worldwide market of cut flowers. Commercial carnation cultivars are vegetatively propagated from terminal stem cuttings that undergo a rooting and acclimation process. For some of the new cultivars that are being developed by ornamental breeders, poor adventitious root (AR) formation limits its commercial scaling-up, due to a significant increase in the production costs. We have initiated a genetical-genomics approach to determine the molecular basis of the differences found between carnation cultivars during adventitious rooting. The detailed characterization of AR formation in several carnation cultivars differing in their rooting losses has been performed (i) during commercial production at a breeders’ rooting station and (ii) on a defined media in a controlled environment. Our study reveals the phenotypic signatures that distinguishes the bad-rooting cultivars and provides the appropriate set-up for the molecular identification of the genes involved in AR development in this species.
Highlights
Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) is, after rose, the most important species on the worldwide market of cut flowers, with a yearly sales volume of almost 200 million plants [1]
Stem cutting losses on a collection of 132 commercial carnation cultivars grown at the Barberet & Blanc’s rooting station between 2011 and 2013 ranged between 0.83 ± 0.89% and 13.54 ± 8.59% (S1 Fig), with significant lower values in spray cultivars (3.93 ± 2.25%) than in standard cultivars (4.72 ± 1.97%)
We found that lengths and fresh weights of the stem cuttings collected for the rooting experiment were positively correlated (r = 0.687; P < 0.005), and that both parameters differed considerably among the studied cultivars, ranging between those in the 13-78-1 MFC and the N 576 B cultivars (Table 1)
Summary
Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) is, after rose, the most important species on the worldwide market of cut flowers, with a yearly sales volume of almost 200 million plants [1]. Current ornamental breeding and production depends largely on rapid multiplication of elite clones, production of healthy and disease-free plants and faster introduction of novel cultivars. Commercial carnation cultivars are propagated from terminal stem cuttings with 4–6 pairs of leaves [2]. Once separated from the mother plant, the cuttings must remain deprived of the root during cold storage [3, 4]. Rooted cuttings are transferred to hardening chambers before transplanting them to production fields. The production of young plantlets is frequently hampered by minimal adventitious root (AR) formation from stem cuttings, which has a strong genetic dependency and which leads to PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133123. The production of young plantlets is frequently hampered by minimal adventitious root (AR) formation from stem cuttings, which has a strong genetic dependency and which leads to PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133123 July 31, 2015
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