Vincent Dielen's research while affiliated with Université Catholique de Louvain - UCLouvain and other places

... Roots are harvested from October until February, reaching a total yield of fresh roots up to 50 t ha −1 and an inulin content as high as 15%. Several cultivars are available on the market [11], and there is a large body of literature on agronomical and eco-physiological aspect of chicory cultivation for inulin production in open field conditions [12][13][14]. ...

... The sowing time in the greenhouse and the management of environmental parameters in the growth chamber resulted also to be an important factor that could influence the transition to the reproductive stage in chicory plant. Despite the fact that chicory inflorescence has high feed quality and is desirable for foraging production [31,32], in chicory cultivation for root production, bolting is a negative occurrence since it causes lignification of the root, a decrease in root productivity, and might allow seed dispersal, favoring the spread of the species as a weed [33]. Floral induction is mainly driven by low temperature, and flowering requires a long day photoperiod [34]. ...

... Supporting this view, the expression of the FM identity gene AN under the control of the S The auxin-responsive transcription factor SlDOF9 regulates inflorescence and flower development in tomato promoter results in a premature transition from IM to FM, leading to early flowering and a single flower formation per inflorescence 18 . Several other tomato genes are also involved in simplified inflorescence architecture, as shown by single flower truss (sft) and uniflora (uf) mutants [19][20][21][22][23] . Altogether, these findings define a complex regulatory network underpinning IM and FM identity and their maturation rate. ...

... A very robust single flower phenotype gave its name to the uniflora (uf ) mutant (Dielen et al., 1998), which was described as late flowering (Dielen et al., 2004), although new alleles produced by CRISPR-Cas9 editing show milder phenotypes (Meir et al., 2021). UF encodes a bHLH transcription factor that was recently shown to control the earliest transcriptional changes occurring in the SAM at floral transition, including the up-regulation of the "maturation gene" S (Meir et al., 2021). ...

... Since no symplastic connections between mother cells and kernels are present, an apoplastic pathway for phloem unloading is compulsory (Tang & Boyer, 2013). Glucose and fructose are transported into the kernel cytoplasm by hexose carriers using H + symport, energized by the plasma membrane (PM) H + -ATPase (Bihmidine et al., 2013;, 2022Jung et al., 2017;Sondergaard et al., 2004;Zhao et al., 2000). Hexoses are needed for synthesis of various cell components and thereby they are indispensable for kernel development (Andersen et al., 2002;Mäkelä et al., 2005;McLaughlin & Boyer, 2004;Schussler & Westgate, 1994;Zinselmeier et al., 1995Zinselmeier et al., , 1999. ...

... The in vitro flowering method itself has been used in several studies, especially for ornamental plants (orchid, baby's breath), traditional medicinal plants (rungia, swertia), and also for tomatoes (Bhowmik and Rahman, 2017;Dielen et al., 2001;Kanchanapoom et al., 2011;Mamidala and Swamy Nanna, 2009;Savitri et al., 2018;Sharma et al., 2014;Sheeja and Mandal, 2003;. Not enough information can be obtained about in vitro flowering for tomato plants. ...

... co-factors, ANANTHA (AN) and DOUBLE TOP (DOT), respectively, both orthologous with the Arabidopsis UNUSUAL FLOWER ORGANS (UFO) (Chae et al., 2008;Lippman et al., 2008;Souer et al., 2008). Furthermore, SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT), a tomato ortholog of FT, reduces branching in both vegetative shoots and inflorescences, and promotes flowering (Park et al., 2012;Quinet et al., 2006). In contrast to its Arabidopsis counterpart, however, the tomato ortholog of TFL1, SELF-PRUNING (SP), controls the development of vegetative sympodial shoots, but does not affect the inflorescence architecture (Pnueli et al., 1998). ...

... In this work we have conducted a breeding program in which we have obtained a triple alc/sp/s mutant that carries the sp and s-classic mutations already described by other authors [33,34], as well as a new mutation (to our knowledge) at the end of the S gene which causes another amino acid change in position 291 of the S protein sequence. Phenotypically, the plants with the sp/s double mutation displayed the characteristic traits of both mutations, with a reduction in the length of sympodial units and the production of two terminal successive inflorescences caused by the sp mutation [33], and a highly branched inflorescence and delayed flowering earliness (Table 1) caused by the s mutation [49]. Although the SP gene has been reported not to be involved in the regulation of reproductive structures' development [33,49], the sp/s mutant plants exhibited a reduced branching of the inflorescence compared to the original mutant s line, suggesting possible gene interactions or the effect of genetic background in the phenotypic expression of the s mutation [49,50]. ...