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Genetics and crop biotechnology

This section considers studies in advances in crop biotechnology as well as the inheritance and variation and all other aspects of genetics in relation to plant biology.

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  1. A key issue for implementation of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing for plant trait improvement and gene function analysis is to efficiently deliver the components, including guide RNAs (gRNAs) and Cas9, into plants....

    Authors: Yanjie Luo, Ren Na, Julia S. Nowak, Yang Qiu, Qing Shi Lu, Chunyan Yang, Frédéric Marsolais and Lining Tian

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:419

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  2. The future productivity of wheat (T. aestivum L.) as the most grown crop worldwide is of utmost importance for global food security. Thousand kernel weight (TKW) in wheat is closely associated with grain architec...

    Authors: Matías Schierenbeck, Ahmad M. Alqudah, Ulrike Lohwasser, Rasha A. Tarawneh, María Rosa Simón and Andreas Börner

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:417

    Content type: Research article

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  3. Conservation of plant genetic resources, including the wild relatives of crops, plays an important and well recognised role in addressing some of the key challenges faced by humanity and the planet including e...

    Authors: Simon Kallow, Bart Panis, Dang Toan Vu, Tuong Dang Vu, Janet Paofa, Arne Mertens, Rony Swennen and Steven B. Janssens

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:415

    Content type: Research article

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  4. Winter freezing temperature impacts alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) persistence and seasonal yield and can lead to the death of the plant. Understanding the genetic mechanisms of alfalfa freezing tolerance (FT) usin...

    Authors: Laxman Adhikari, Shiva O. Makaju, Orville M. Lindstrom and Ali M. Missaoui

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:403

    Content type: Research article

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  5. Mandarin ‘Shatangju’ is susceptible to Huanglongbing (HLB) and the HLB-infected fruits are small, off-flavor, and stay-green at the maturity period. To understand the relationship between pericarp color and HL...

    Authors: Feiyan Wang, Yunli Wu, Wen Wu, Yongjing Huang, Congyi Zhu, Ruimin Zhang, Jiezhong Chen and Jiwu Zeng

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:397

    Content type: Research article

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  6. Panicle is a harvesting organ of rice, and its morphology and development are closely associated with grain yield. The current study was carried on a mutant screened through an EMS (ethyl-methane sulphonate) m...

    Authors: Tingkai Wu, Asif Ali, Jinhao Wang, Jiahe Song, Yongqiong Fang, Tingting Zhou, Yi Luo, Hongyu Zhang, Xiaoqiong Chen, Yongxiang Liao, Yutong Liu, Peizhou Xu and Xianjun Wu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:390

    Content type: Research article

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  7. Soybean is a globally important legume crop that provides a primary source of high-quality vegetable protein and oil. Seed protein content (SPC) is a valuable quality trait controlled by multiple genes in soyb...

    Authors: Jia Wang, Lin Mao, Zhaoqiong Zeng, Xiaobo Yu, Jianqiu Lian, Jun Feng, Wenying Yang, Jiangang An, Haiying Wu, Mingrong Zhang and Liezhao Liu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:388

    Content type: Research article

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  8. Flowering is an important inflection point in the transformation from vegetative to reproductive growth, and premature bolting severely decreases crop yield and quality.

    Authors: Chong Tan, Jie Ren, Lin Wang, Xueling Ye, Wei Fu, Jiamei Zhang, Meng Qi, Hui Feng and Zhiyong Liu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:373

    Content type: Research article

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  10. The TGACG-binding (TGA) family has 10 members that play vital roles in Arabidopsis thaliana defense responses and development. However, their involvement in controlling flowering time remains largely unknown and ...

    Authors: Xiaorui Xu, Jingya Xu, Chen Yuan, Yikai Hu, Qinggang Liu, Qianqian Chen, Pengcheng Zhang, Nongnong Shi and Cheng Qin

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:367

    Content type: Research article

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  11. Improving the overall production of rice with high quality is a major target of breeders. Mining potential yield-related loci have been geared towards developing efficient rice breeding strategies. In this stu...

    Authors: Hua Zhong, Shuai Liu, Tong Sun, Weilong Kong, Xiaoxiao Deng, Zhaohua Peng and Yangsheng Li

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:364

    Content type: Research article

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  12. To meet increasing demand for forest-based products and protect natural forests from further deforestation requires increased productivity from planted forests. Genetic improvement of conifers by traditional b...

    Authors: Charleson Poovaiah, Lorelle Phillips, Barbara Geddes, Cathie Reeves, Mathias Sorieul and Glenn Thorlby

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:363

    Content type: Research article

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  13. In breeding programs, the selection of cultivars with the highest yield potential consisted in the selection of the yield per se, which resulted in cultivars with higher grains per spike (GN) and occasionally ...

    Authors: Nicole Pretini, Leonardo S. Vanzetti, Ignacio I. Terrile, Guillermo Donaire and Fernanda G. González

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:353

    Content type: Research article

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  14. The skin (exocarp) of fleshy fruit is hugely diverse across species. Most fruit types have a live epidermal skin covered by a layer of cuticle made up of cutin while a few create an outermost layer of dead cel...

    Authors: Nikolai Macnee, Elena Hilario, Jibran Tahir, Alastair Currie, Ben Warren, Ria Rebstock, Ian C. Hallett, David Chagné, Robert J. Schaffer and Sean M. Bulley

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:334

    Content type: Research article

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  15. Peanut smut is a disease caused by the fungus Thecaphora frezii Carranza & Lindquist to which most commercial cultivars in South America are highly susceptible. It is responsible for severely decreased yield and ...

    Authors: Francisco J. de Blas, Cecilia I. Bruno, Renee S. Arias, Carolina Ballén-Taborda, Eva Mamani, Claudio Oddino, Melina Rosso, Beatriz P. Costero, Marina Bressano, Juan H. Soave, Sara J. Soave, Mario I. Buteler, J. Guillermo Seijo and Alicia N. Massa

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:312

    Content type: Research article

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  16. Mustard (Brassica juncea) is an important economic vegetable, and some cultivars have purple leaves and accumulate more anthocyanins than the green. The genetic and evolution of purple trait in mustard has not be...

    Authors: Guanghui An and Jiongjiong Chen

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:301

    Content type: Research article

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  17. A major limiting factor for plant growth is the aluminum (Al) toxicity in acidic soils, especially in tropical regions. The exclusion of Al from the root apex through root exudation of organic acids such as ma...

    Authors: Ana Paula Ribeiro, Felipe Vinecky, Karoline Estefani Duarte, Thaís Ribeiro Santiago, Raphael Augusto das Chagas Noqueli Casari, Aline Forgatti Hell, Bárbara Andrade Dias Brito da Cunha, Polyana Kelly Martins, Danilo da Cruz Centeno, Patricia Abrão de Oliveira Molinari, Geraldo Magela de Almeida Cançado, Jurandir Vieira de Magalhães, Adilson Kenji Kobayashi, Wagner Rodrigo de Souza and Hugo Bruno Correa Molinari

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:300

    Content type: Research article

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  18. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an important leafy vegetable crop, and leaf-related traits including leaf length, leaf width, and petiole length, are important commercial traits. However, the underlying genes r...

    Authors: Zhiyuan Liu, Hongbing She, Zhaosheng Xu, Helong Zhang, Guoliang Li, Shifan Zhang and Wei Qian

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:290

    Content type: Research article

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  19. Sesame is a rare example of non-model and minor crop for which numerous genetic loci and candidate genes underlying features of interest have been disclosed at relatively high resolution. These progresses have...

    Authors: Muez Berhe, Komivi Dossa, Jun You, Pape Adama Mboup, Idrissa Navel Diallo, Diaga Diouf, Xiurong Zhang and Linhai Wang

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:283

    Content type: Review

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  21. Roses are famous ornamental plants worldwide. Floral coloration is one of the most prominent traits in roses and is mainly regulated through the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. In this study, we investigated...

    Authors: Jiaojiao Lu, Qing Zhang, Lixin Lang, Chuang Jiang, Xiaofeng Wang and Hongmei Sun

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:257

    Content type: Research article

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  22. Numerous quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and candidate genes associated with yield-related traits have been identified in cotton by genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis. However, most of the phenotypic...

    Authors: Guozhong Zhu, Sen Hou, Xiaohui Song, Xing Wang, Wei Wang, Quanjia Chen and Wangzhen Guo

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:250

    Content type: Research article

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  23. Lateral branches vigorously proliferate in tobacco after the topping of the inflorescence portions of stems for the maturation of the leaves to be harvested. Therefore, tobacco varieties with inhibited lateral...

    Authors: Kaori Hamano, Seiki Sato, Masao Arai, Yuta Negishi, Takashi Nakamura, Tomoyuki Komatsu, Tsuyoshi Naragino and Shoichi Suzuki

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:236

    Content type: Research article

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  24. Although extensive breeding efforts are ongoing in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.), the average yield is far below the theoretical potential. Tillering is an important component of sugarcane yield, however, ...

    Authors: Haifeng Yan, Huiwen Zhou, Hanmin Luo, Yegeng Fan, Zhongfeng Zhou, Rongfa Chen, Ting Luo, Xujuan Li, Xinlong Liu, Yangrui Li, Lihang Qiu and Jianming Wu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:228

    Content type: Research article

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  25. Kinesin (KIN) as a motor protein is a versatile nano-machine and involved in diverse essential processes in plant growth and development. However, the kinesin gene family has not been identified in watermelon,...

    Authors: Shujuan Tian, Jiao Jiang, Guo-qi Xu, Tan Wang, Qiyan Liu, Xiner Chen, Man Liu and Li Yuan

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:210

    Content type: Research article

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  26. Fruit flesh color in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a great index for evaluating the appearance quality and a key contributor influencing consumers’ preferences. But the molecular mechanism of this intricate t...

    Authors: Pingli Yuan, Muhammad Jawad Umer, Nan He, Shengjie Zhao, Xuqiang Lu, Hongju Zhu, Chengsheng Gong, Weinan Diao, Haileslassie Gebremeskel, Hanhui Kuang and Wenge Liu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:203

    Content type: Research article

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  27. Scientific literature carries a wealth of information crucial for research, but only a fraction of it is present as structured information in databases and therefore can be analyzed using traditional data anal...

    Authors: Gurnoor Singh, Evangelia A. Papoutsoglou, Frederique Keijts-Lalleman, Bilyana Vencheva, Mark Rice, Richard G.F. Visser, Christian W.B. Bachem and Richard Finkers

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:198

    Content type: Research article

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  28. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important food crop known for its high starch content. Polyploid breeding is effective in its genetic improvement, and use of 2n gametes in sexual polyploid breeding is on...

    Authors: Xia Chen, Hanggui Lai, Ruimei Li, Yuan Yao, Jiao Liu, Shuai Yuan, Shaoping Fu, Xinwen Hu and Jianchun Guo

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:188

    Content type: Research article

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  29. The investigation of molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism plays a critical role for the genetic engineering of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) to increase the oil accumulation level or to change ...

    Authors: Dandan Li, Qing Wang, Xin Xu, Jingsheng Yu, Zhiyu Chen, Bo Wei and Wei Wu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:181

    Content type: Research article

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  30. DNA sequence composition affects meiotic recombination. However, the correlation between tandem repeat composition and meiotic recombination in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is unclear.

    Authors: Yang Zou, Linrong Wan, Jie Luo, Zongxiang Tang and Shulan Fu

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:167

    Content type: Research article

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  31. Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), which naturally exists in higher plants, is a useful mechanism for analyzing nuclear and mitochondrial genome functions and identifying the role of mitochondrial genes in the ...

    Authors: Benqi Wang, Zunaira Farooq, Lei Chu, Jie Liu, Huadong Wang, Jian Guo, Jinxing Tu, Chaozhi Ma, Cheng Dai, Jin Wen, Jinxiong Shen, Tingdong Fu and Bin Yi

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:130

    Content type: Research article

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  32. Thinopyrum intermedium (2n = 6x = 42) is an important wild perennial Triticeae species exhibiting many potentially favorable traits for wheat improvement. Wheat-Th. intermedium partial amphiploids serve as a brid...

    Authors: Yu Cui, Piyi Xing, Xiaolei Qi, Yinguang Bao, Honggang Wang, Richard R.-C. Wang and Xingfeng Li

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:129

    Content type: Research article

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  33. Banana plant height is an important trait for horticultural practices and semi-dwarf cultivars show better resistance to damages by wind and rain. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling the pseudostem h...

    Authors: Guiming Deng, Fangcheng Bi, Jing Liu, Weidi He, Chunyu Li, Tao Dong, Qiaosong Yang, Huijun Gao, Tongxin Dou, Xiaohong Zhong, Miao Peng, Ganjun Yi, Chunhua Hu and Ou Sheng

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:125

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Transcriptomic studies combined with a well annotated genome have laid the foundations for new understanding of molecular processes. Tools which visualise gene expression patterns have further added to these r...

    Authors: Lara Brian, Ben Warren, Peter McAtee, Jessica Rodrigues, Niels Nieuwenhuizen, Asher Pasha, Karine M. David, Annette Richardson, Nicholas J. Provart, Andrew C. Allan, Erika Varkonyi-Gasic and Robert J. Schaffer

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:121

    Content type: Research article

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  35. Plant height is an important plant characteristic closely related to yield performance of many crops. Reasonable reduction of plant height of crops is beneficial for improving yield and enhancing lodging resis...

    Authors: Xin Li, Fujiang Xiang, Wei Zhang, Jindong Yan, Xinmei Li, Ming Zhong, Piao Yang, Caiyan Chen, Xuanming Liu, Donghai Mao and Xiaoying Zhao

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:117

    Content type: Research article

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  37. Cotton stem trichomes and seed fibers are each single celled structures formed by protrusions of epidermal cells, and were found sharing the overlapping molecular mechanism. Compared with fibers, cotton stem t...

    Authors: Rong Yuan, Yuefen Cao, Tengyu Li, Feng Yang, Li Yu, Yuan Qin, Xiongming Du, Fang Liu, Mingquan Ding, Yurong Jiang, Hua Zhang, Andrew H. Paterson and Junkang Rong

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:115

    Content type: Research article

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  39. Methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD) proteins play important roles in epigenetic gene regulation, and have diverse molecular, cellular, and biological functions in plants. MBD proteins have been functionally charac...

    Authors: Mengyu Qu, Zhujian Zhang, Tingmin Liang, Peipei Niu, Mingji Wu, Wenchao Chi, Zi-Qiang Chen, Zai-Jie Chen, Shubiao Zhang and Songbiao Chen

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:100

    Content type: Research article

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  40. Assessment and effective utilization of genetic diversity in breeding programs is crucial for sustainable genetic improvement and rapid adaptation to changing breeding objectives. During the past two decades, ...

    Authors: Baffour Badu-Apraku, Ana Luísa Garcia-Oliveira, César Daniel Petroli, Sarah Hearne, Samuel Adeyemi Adewale and Melaku Gedil

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:96

    Content type: Research article

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  41. Monochasma savatieri is a medicinal root hemiparasitic herb that extracts water and nutrients from the host plant via a haustorium. M. savatieri exhibits an enhanced growth after the establishment of parasite-hos...

    Authors: Lanlan Chen, Qiaosheng Guo, Zaibiao Zhu, Hefang Wan, Yuhao Qin and Hui Zhang

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:90

    Content type: Research article

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  42. Rice plants suffer from the rising temperature which is becoming more and more prominent. Mining heat-resistant genes and applying them to rice breeding is a feasible and effective way to solve the problem.

    Authors: Zhaoran Wei, Qiaoling Yuan, Hai Lin, Xiaoxia Li, Chao Zhang, Hongsheng Gao, Bin Zhang, Huiying He, Tianjiao Liu, Zhang Jie, Xu Gao, Shandang Shi, Bo Wang, Zhenyu Gao, Lingrang Kong, Qian Qian…

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:85

    Content type: Research article

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  43. Lack of nutritionally appropriate foods is one of the leading causes of obesity in the US and worldwide. Wheat (Triticum aestivum) provides 20% of the calories consumed daily across the globe. The nutrients in th...

    Authors: Adam Schoen, Anupama Joshi, Vijay Tiwari, Bikram S. Gill and Nidhi Rawat

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:74

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  44. Shoot architecture is fundamentally crucial to crop growth and productivity. As a key component of shoot architecture, plant height is known to be controlled by both genetic and environmental factors, though s...

    Authors: Qing Yang, Gaoming Lin, Huiyong Lv, Cunhu Wang, Yongqing Yang and Hong Liao

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:63

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  45. Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop) is not only a high-quality legume forage, but also a nectar-producing plant. Therefore, the flower color of sainfoin is an important agronomic trait, but the factors affectin...

    Authors: Yu Qiao, Qiming Cheng, Yutong Zhang, Wei Yan, Fengyan Yi and Fengling Shi

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:61

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  46. Lignin deposited in plant cell walls negatively affects biomass conversion into advanced bioproducts. There is therefore a strong interest in developing bioenergy crops with reduced lignin content or altered l...

    Authors: Zhangying Hao, Sasha Yogiswara, Tong Wei, Veronica Teixeira Benites, Anagh Sinha, George Wang, Edward E. K. Baidoo, Pamela C. Ronald, Henrik V. Scheller, Dominique Loqué and Aymerick Eudes

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:56

    Content type: Research article

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  47. Forest trees have important economic and ecological value. As a model tree, poplar has played a significant role in elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying tree biology. However, a lack of mutant libra...

    Authors: Lin Zheng, Jixiu Yang, Yajuan Chen, Liping Ding, Jianhua Wei and Hongzhi Wang

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:54

    Content type: Methodology article

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  48. Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) in wheat can cause severe damage to both grain yield and quality. Resistance to PHS is a quantitative trait controlled by many genes located across all 21 wheat chromosomes. The stu...

    Authors: Xingyi Wang, Hui Liu, Kadambot H. M. Siddique and Guijun Yan

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:53

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  49. Wheat stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. Tritici), is a major disease that causes huge yield damage. New pathogen races appeared in the last few years and caused a broke down in the resistant geno...

    Authors: Mohamed A. Abou-Zeid and Amira M. I. Mourad

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:42

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  50. O-methyltransferases (OMTs) are an important group of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to their acceptor substrates. OMTs are divided into several groups accord...

    Authors: Abdul Hafeez, Qún Gě, Qí Zhāng, Jùnwén Lǐ, Jǔwǔ Gōng, Ruìxián Liú, Yùzhēn Shí, Hǎihóng Shāng, Àiyīng Liú, Muhammad S. Iqbal, Xiǎoyīng Dèng, Abdul Razzaq, Muharam Ali, Yǒulù Yuán and Wànkuí Gǒng

    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2021 21:37

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

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