Manuel Aguirre Bolaños

Tulips are an economically important crop for The Netherlands and their lengthy life cycle makes molecular breeding an almost impossible task to accomplish. This is an ever growing problem since pests and global warming put at risk the production of this relevant Dutch crop. From the 5 to 7 years that it takes for a tulip to flower for the first time, 3 to 5 years correspond to the juvenile phase, in which they are not able to respond to flowering ques. The gradual process by which plants acquire flowering competence and become adults is called vegetative phase change (VPC). In my PhD I research the molecular bases of the VPC in tulips with the purpose of eventually shortening tulip’s life cycle.