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DISTINCTION. "It is the connection to the acceleration of floral initiation that distinguishes vernalization from other cold-related phenomena such as dormancy chilling and stratification. In woody perennials, floral primordia are formed during a growing season, but further development is arrested as plants enter dormancy in winter. The chilling of winter breaks dormancy, resulting in bud burst and the subsequent appearance of fully developed flowers. Stratification is the promotion of seed germination by cold, usually of only a few days duration." https://lnkd.in/d_f7kfY View in LinkedIn

ANNUALS VS BIENNIALS. "Vernalization can be facultative or obligate. Winter annuals have a facultative vernalization requirement, as cold accelerates, but this is not required for flowering. Biennials, however, cannot flower without cold treatment and there- fore have an obligate requirement for vernalization. Summer annuals flower rapidly without a vernalization treatment." https://lnkd.in/d_f7kfY View in LinkedIn

"VERNALIZATION (from Latin vernus, "of the spring") is the induction of a plant's flowering process by exposure to the prolonged cold of winter, or by an artificial equivalent. After vernalization, plants have acquired the ability to flower, but they may require additional seasonal cues or weeks of growth before they will actually flower." https://lnkd.in/d4S7Gvs View in LinkedIn

SUSPENDED ANIMATION. "Dormancy, a life-history strategy involving suspension of active life, arrested development, and reduced or suspended metabolic activity, mediated either by internal physiological factors (known as diapause) or exogenous factors (known as quiescence). Dormancy is a widespread adaptation, playing a role in the life cycles of a huge variety of organisms.” https://lnkd.in/djYeMia View in LinkedIn

INTRIGUING GORDIAN KNOT. "The dormancy mechanism has puzzled researchers for decades." https://lnkd.in/d32NpMB View in LinkedIn

TIME AND EXTENT. "If life is viewed as supple adaptation, then the most important life/non-life distinction involves a continuum because the activity of supple adaptability itself comes in degrees. Different systems can exhibit supple adaptation to different degrees, and a given system’s level of supple adaptation can fluctuate over time." https://lnkd.in/da-Njua View in LinkedIn

OPENING THE BLACK BOX. "A number of essential and specific dormancy genes have been identified, as well as chromatin organizers that influence seed dormancy induction. The release of dormancy has long been a black box, but the recent recognition of the important contribution of non-enzymatic processes, like oxidation, in the after-ripening process is starting to reveal the mechanisms behind this process." https://lnkd.in/dgHUjzK View in LinkedIn

LIFE TRANSITIONS. The borderline cases are where life transitions become most interesting, and troubling to those who want a tidy playbook. Viruses, seeds, frozen sperm, probiotic soup, mobile genetic elements and even computer code. And, as a consequence, artificial intelligence. One of our most compelling topics today. View in LinkedIn

BORDERLINE. "But the common sense view is put under stress by various borderline cases like viruses which are unable to replicate without a host and spores or frozen sperm which remain dormant and unchanging indefinitely but then "come back to life" when conditions become suitable. Furthermore, we all agree that the original life forms somehow emerged from a pre-biotic chemical soup, and this suggests that there is very little, if any, principled distinction between life and non-life." https://lnkd.in/da-Njua View in LinkedIn

COMMON SNIFF TEST. "Can things be more or less alive? Serious reflection about life quickly raises the question whether life is a boolean (black-or-white) property, as it seems at first blush, or whether it is a continuum property, coming in many shades of gray. Common sense leans towards the boolean view: a rabbit is alive and a rock isn’t." https://lnkd.in/da-Njua View in LinkedIn