Molecular breeding of plants has great advantages over traditional breeding in breaking the isolation among species, accelerating the process of breeding and achieving new and unique mutants. Its application in breeding ornamental plants will increase the quality of products and enhance the competence of relevant industries. This paper summarizes advances in research into molecular breeding of ornamental plants in the last decade.

Fruit ripening and senescence, 2 important stages in the fruit plant life cycle, are complex physiological processes regulated by various endogenous and exogenous factors and directly affect fruit quality and storage time. This review discusses the advances in exploring the molecular mechanisms of fruit ripening and senescence in recent studies as well as the regulating effects of exogenous signal molecules on ripening and senescence in fruit.

The characters of flower quality such as flower color, scent, shape, and blooming time are related directly to the commodity value of the plant. Functional research in flower-quality-related genes of ornamental flowers is important. We review the achievements in this area over the past 10 years in China to provide information for molecular design breeding.

A hallmark of flowering plants is sexual reproduction, with the embryo a key player. In double fertilization, the zygote (fertilized egg) first establishes its apical-basal polarity within the single cell. With cell division and differentiation, the proembryo forms a apical-basal axis and develops through pattern formation and organogenesis. Recent advances have shown that the whole process of embryogenesis is regulated by auxin at levels of biosynthesis, polar transport and signal transduction. In this review, we highlight our current understanding, mainly from studies in Arabidopsis, of the molecular mechanisms by which auxin controls embryogenesis. These mechanisms include the establishment of polarity of zygotes, apical-basal axis of embryos, differentiation of protoderm, transition of radial symmetry to bilateral symmetry, formation of hypophysis, shoot apical meristem and root apical meristem. In addition, we briefly introduce the embryogenesis process not regulated by auxin.

Programmed cell death is a genetically regulated process of cellular suicide at special time and position with endogenous or environmental induction signals for multicellular organisms. It plays an important role in plant development. In this paper, we introduce the different kinds of programmed cell death in plants, several model systems for research in this field, and describe the current advances in the regulatory mechanisms of developmental programmed cell death in plants.

Lycophytes and ferns are spore-bearing vascular plants, and are important groups in the evolution history of land plants. With the progress of molecular systematic, the relationships of the major groups have been resolved, and the traditional concepts have been revised. Meanwhile, new systematic arrangements have been proposed and are continuously being revised and updated. In the present review, the most recent phylogenetic studies were discussed and a new classification system of the extant lycophytes and ferns from China was also proposed. The system comprises five subclasses, 14 orders, 39 families with 12 subfamilies, and about 140 genera of lycophytes and ferns distributed in China.

Biotechnology is a rapidly developed agricultural technique for improving crops. Despite the continuing debate on the biotech crops, the plantings of biotech crops have continued to increase in both developed and developing countries. This paper gives a brief summary on current status of biotech crops, the debating issues of biosafety, the public concerns and possible solution, hopefully will help the public to rationally understand the biotech crop breeding and its application.

Since the discovery of the DNA double helix structure by Watson and Crick in 1953, technologies based on DNA recombination, such as transgenic technology, have developed so quickly that we can not escape its impact in our daily life. This short review discussed the past and current status of transgenic technology in plants with a focus on ZFN and TALEN technology to provide a quick overview of this exciting technology.