Submandibular gland epithelial development and the importance of junctions.

Salivary glands consist of highly specialized epithelial cells that secrete the fluid, saliva, and/or transport saliva into the oral cavity. Saliva is essential to lubricate the oral cavity for food consumption and to maintain the hygiene of the oral cavity. In this review, we will focus on the formation of the epithelial cell lineage and the cell junctions that are essential for formation of saliva and maintenance of the epithelial barrier between the ducts that transport saliva and the extracellular environment.

Transport capacity is uncoupled with endodormancy breaking in sweet cherry buds: physiological and molecular insights.

Introduction: To avoid the negative impacts of winter unfavorable conditions for plant development, temperate trees enter a rest period called dormancy. Winter dormancy is a complex process that involves multiple signaling pathways and previous studies have suggested that transport capacity between cells and between the buds and the twig may regulate the progression throughout dormancy stages. However, the dynamics and molecular actors involved in this regulation are still poorly described in fruit trees. Methods: Here, in order to validate the hypothesis that transport capacity regulates dormancy progression in fruit trees, we combined physiological, imaging and transcriptomic approaches to characterize molecular pathways and transport capacity during dormancy in sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) flower buds. Results: Our results show that transport capacity is reduced during dormancy and could be regulated by environmental signals. Moreover, we demonstrate that dormancy release is not synchronized with the transport capacity resumption but occurs when the bud is capable of growth under the influence of warmer temperatures. We highlight key genes involved in transport capacity during dormancy. Discussion: Based on long-term observations conducted during six winter seasons, we propose hypotheses on the environmental and molecular regulation of transport capacity, in relation to dormancy and growth resumption in sweet cherry.

Genome-wide association mapping in a sweet cherry germplasm collection (Prunus avium L.) reveals candidate genes for fruit quality traits.

In sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), large variability exists for various traits related to fruit quality. There is a need to discover the genetic architecture of these traits in order to enhance the efficiency of breeding strategies for consumer and producer demands. With this objective, a germplasm collection consisting of 116 sweet cherry accessions was evaluated for 23 agronomic fruit quality traits over 2-6 years, and characterized using a genotyping-by-sequencing approach. The SNP coverage collected was used to conduct a genome-wide association study using two multilocus models and three reference genomes. We identified numerous SNP-trait associations for global fruit size (weight, width, and thickness), fruit cracking, fruit firmness, and stone size, and we pinpointed several candidate genes involved in phytohormone, calcium, and cell wall metabolisms. Finally, we conducted a precise literature review focusing on the genetic architecture of fruit quality traits in sweet cherry to compare our results with potential colocalizations of marker-trait associations. This study brings new knowledge of the genetic control of important agronomic traits related to fruit quality, and to the development of marker-assisted selection strategies targeted towards the facilitation of breeding efforts.

The Non-Coding RNA Journal Club: Highlights on Recent Papers-11.

We are delighted to share with you our eleventh Journal Club and highlight some of the most interesting papers published recently [...].