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Is dormancy breaking of potato tubers the reverse of tuber initiation?

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Summary

Tuber formation is a well orchestrated physiological event that involves many metabolic changes. Dormancy gradually develops in potato tubers from the moment cell division in the stolon tip has stopped and the tuber starts to develop. Dormancy breakage may be the reverse of dormancy initiation suggesting that there may be similarities between tuber induction and dormancy development.

Based on a literature review it is concluded that, when comparing tuber induction and the breaking of dormancy, hormonal activities are only partly reversed, whereas carbohydrates and enzyme activities might be reversed.

For more definite conclusions more research should be done to assess precisely the moment of dormancy breaking. Moreover, measurements on events associated with tuber induction and dormancy breaking should be carried out using the same techniques and the same material.

Molecular genetic analyses may provide well-defined markers for the timing of breaking of dormancy.

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  1. Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Wageningen University, Arboretumlaan 4, 6703 BD, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Margo M. J. Claassens & Dick Vreugdenhil

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  1. Margo M. J. Claassens
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Claassens, M.M.J., Vreugdenhil, D. Is dormancy breaking of potato tubers the reverse of tuber initiation?. Potato Res 43, 347–369 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02360540

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