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Adventitious rooting of cuttings is a complex developmental process in forest species, with several exogenous and endogenous factors influencing the outcome of the process. In this study we applied an in vitro working system, comprising two lines of microshoots with the same genotype but at a different ontogenetic stages, in two different tree species (chestnut and oak). We analyzed the expression of a gene encoding an AP2/ERF transcription factor from group VII in the initial hours of the adventitious rooting induction, both in rooting competent and incompetent microshoots. The analysis revealed that expression of this gene is related to wounding, ontogenetic stage and auxin in a complex and species-specific manner. Putative induction of the gene by auxin was also analyzed in the presence of naphthyl-phthalamic acid (NPA), an auxin transport inhibitor. In situ expression analysis in chestnut relates the gene activity to cambial divisions and root primordia in rooting competent microshoots, as well as in the root apex. The putative role of the gene during adventitious roots formation is discussed.

We present a reproducible procedure for transforming somatic embryos of cork oak with the CsTL1 gene that codes for a thaumatin-like protein, in order to confer tolerance to Phytophthora cinnamomi. Different concentrations/combinations of the antibiotics carbenicillin and cefotaxime, as bacteriostatic agents, and kanamycin, as a selective agent, were tested. A lethal dose of 125 mg/L kanamycin was employed to select transgenic somatic embryos, and carbenicillin was used as a bacteriostatic agent at a concentration of 300 mg/L, which does not inhibit somatic embryo proliferation. The transformation efficiency was clearly genotype-dependent and was higher for the TGR3 genotype (17%) than for ALM80 (4.5%) and ALM6 (2%). Insertion of the transgenes in genomic DNA was confirmed by PCR analysis, whereas expression of the CsTL1 gene was evaluated by semi-quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis. A vitrification treatment successfully cryopreserved the transgenic lines generated. The antifungal activity of the thaumatin-like protein expressed by the gene CsTL1 was evaluated in an in vitro bioassay with the oomycete P. cinnamomi. Of the eight transgenic lines analyzed, seven survived for between one or two times longer than non-transgenic plantlets. Expression of the CsTL1 gene and plantlet survival days were correlated, and survival was generally greater in plantlets that strongly expressed the CsTL1 gene.