Bulb Dormancy In Vitro—Fritillaria meleagris: Initiation, Release and Physiological Parameters

Abstract

In ornamental geophytes, conventional vegetative propagation is not economically feasible due to very slow development and ineffective methods. It can take several years until a new plant is formed and commercial profitability is achieved. Therefore, micropropagation techniques have been developed to increase the multiplication rate and thus shorten the multiplication and regeneration period. The majority of these techniques rely on the formation of new bulbs and their sprouting. Dormancy is one of the main limiting factors to speed up multiplication in vitro. Bulbous species have a period of bulb dormancy which enables them to survive unfavorable natural conditions. Bulbs grown in vitro also exhibit dormancy, which has to be overcome in order to allow sprouting of bulbs in the next vegetation period. During the period of dormancy, numerous physiological processes occur, many of which have not been elucidated yet. Understanding the process of dormancy will allow us to speed up and improve breeding of geophytes and thereby achieve economic profitability, which is very important for horticulture. This review focuses on recent findings in the area of bulb dormancy initiation and release in fritillaries, with particular emphasis on the effect of plant growth regulators and low-temperature pretreatment on dormancy release in relation to induction of antioxidative enzymes’ activity in vitro.

Understanding the effects of weather parameters on the population dynamics of an endangered geophyte supports monitoring efficiency

“…In contrast, the presence of frost days increased the proportion of dormancy breaking C. bulbocodium individuals. These results are in accordance with the ndings of other studies, which found that geophytes can germinate, grow, and develop better under colder conditions (Lundmark et al 2009;Khodorova et al 2010;Kashin et al 2020;Marković et al 2021). These studies agree that geophytes require a warm -cold -warm period to properly complete their life cycle.…”

Histochemical Localization of Alkaloids in the Bulbs of In Vitro-Regenerated Snake’s Head Fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris L.): The Effect of a Temperature Regime

“…Since F. meleagris is very rare and endangered and is already extinct in some places in Serbia [4], in vitro propagation techniques provide a very effective method for its large-scale propagule generation, thus expanding the source of the sought alkaloids. In the present study, we relied on our previous studies on in vitro propagation of F. meleagris and the possibilities of overcoming dormancy by cold treatment [23,25]. Our results showed that the highest alkaloid accumulation was observed in the bulbs after cold treatment, particularly in those that sprouted.…”

“…Concerning snake's head fritillary, research has focused on optimizing protocols for dormancy breaking, sprouting, and overall improvement of plant growth. A number of our previous studies [21,[23][24][25] reported different techniques for the propagation and regeneration of F. meleagris. Additional physiological and biochemical studies need to be carried out to increase the production of metabolites of therapeutic interest in bulbs of in vitro-cultured F. meleagris.…”

Biomod2 modeling for predicting the potential ecological distribution of three Fritillaria species under climate change

“…Moreover, Bio6 provided the second biggest contribution to the distribution of F. taipaiensis (17.2%). Temperature was reported to affect bulb dormancy, ovule fertilization, photosynthesis, bulb yielding and total alkaloid contents of the Fritillaria species 10 , 42 , 57 , 58 . Supporting that optimum temperature seasonality ranged from 785.18 and 279.08 for F. taipaiensis and F. wabuensis , respectively, both species showed high levels of probability of presence.…”