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Diseases affecting strawberries have been of major concern in recent years because of their widespread occurrence and potential for yield loss. Anthracnose caused by the fungus Colletotrichum acutatum is one of the most serious disases of strawberry worldwide. Although chemical controls are being used to treat anthracnose, generating disease resistant plants is a more attractive solution to the problem because chemicals can pose a health hazard, have a negative impact on the environment and may only be moderately effective. Tissue culture-induced (somaclonal) variation provides us with one strategy for generating disease-resistant genotypes. An in vitro screening system was used to evaluate several commercially important cultivars, Chandler, Delmarvel, Honeoye, Latestar, Pelican and Sweet Charlie, and shoots regenerated from leaf explants of these cultivars for resistance to C. acutatum isolate Goff (highly virulent). Somaclones with increased levels of anthracnose resistance were identified for all the cultivars. The greatest increases in disease resistance were observed for somaclones of cultivars Chandler, Pelican and Sweet Charlie that exhibited 6.8-, 12-, and 4.2-fold increases in resistance, respectively. These studies provide evidence that: 1) in vitro screening can be used to evaluate strawberry germplasm for anthracnose resistance, 2) soma-clonal variation is influenced by stawberry genotype, and 3) generating somaclonal variants may be a feasible approach to obtaining strawberry plants with increased levels of anthracnose resistance.

Black cohosh [Actaea racemosa L.; Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt.] is a perennial herb native to North America that is commonly used for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. The plant is almost exclusively harvested from the wild and is being threatened by overharvesting in some regions. As demand for this plant continues to increase, the potential for profitable cultivation of this species is becoming realistic. Little is known about the effect of various cultivation practices, soils, environments, and harvest times on the multitude of phytochemicals that occur in black cohosh. Furthermore, although the rhizome is the organ that is traditionally consumed, other tissues also contain various quantities of important phytochemicals, but this has not been well documented. The objectives of this study, therefore, were to ascertain any environmental effects on the production of two representative phytochemicals (23-epi-26-deoxyactein and cimiracemoside A) and to elucidate any season-long patterns or variations in the production of these compounds within five black cohosh tissues (leaf, rachis, rhizome, root, and inflorescence). All black cohosh tissues contained 23-epi-26-deoxyactein with substantially more, as a percentage of dry weight, detected in inflorescence (28,582 to 41,354 mg·kg⁻¹) and leaf (8250 to 16,799 mg·kg⁻¹) compared with rhizome (2688 to 4094 mg·kg⁻¹), and all tissues experienced a linear season-long decrease in occurrence of this compound. Cimiracemoside A was not detected in leaf tissues. The highest levels were found in rhizome (677 to 1138 mg·kg⁻¹) and root (598 to 1281 mg·kg⁻¹), which likewise experienced a significant season-long decrease in this compound, whereas levels in the rachis (0 to 462 mg·kg⁻¹) increased over time. In general, environmental factors did not affect production of either compound. Varying seasonal patterns in phytochemical production, combined with differences in phytochemical content among plant tissues, point to the potential for more targeted horticultural production of these and other medicinal compounds within black cohosh.

Gibberellins (GAs) are phytohormones that regulate plant height and flowering time in plants. Plants with reduced GA or disrupted in GA signaling exhibit a dwarf phenotype. DELLA proteins are transcriptional repressors that attenuate GA-mediated promotion of plant growth. Alleles in which the eponymous DELLA motif in these proteins is disrupted result in constitutive repression of GA signaling and a dominantly inherited dwarf phenotype. We found that the dwarf Helianthus annuus (sunflower) cultivar Sunspot is hyposensitive to GA₃ as compared with the tall cultivar Mammoth Grey. Sequencing of the HaDella1 gene indicates that ‘Sunspot’ has a single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in a missense mutation in the DELLA motif as compared with ‘Mammoth Grey’ and the reference sequence. Helianthus annuus has five genes encoding DELLA proteins, including HaDella1. We propose that the DELLA motif alteration in the HaDella1 gene results in a dominant mutation in ‘Sunspot’ and is the cause of its dwarf phenotype.