Horticultural plant reproductive biology
Guest editors: Dr. Ray Ming (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Dr. Li-Yu Chen (Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University), and Dr. Takashi Akagi (Okayama University)
Plant reproduction is an important biological event not only for the propagation of a plant species, more importantly for productivity and quality of crops. The reproductive processes in plants span from the induction of flowering to fruit development and maturation. Horticultural plants provide fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and beverages for human consumption, most of which are related to the reproductive processes.
Rapid development in genomic, molecular, and synthetic technologies has accelerated discoveries on reproductive biology of horticultural plants. This special issue publishes contributions focusing on reproductive biology of horticultural plants, including but not limited to floral induction and floral organ development, sex determination and differentiation, sporogenesis and gametogenesis, pollen-pistil interaction, self-incompatibility, gametophyte interactions and fertilization, embryogenesis and endosperm development, apomixes, fruit and seed development, evolution of reproductive systems, and biotechnological applications in reproduction.
