Copyright © 2011 Jia-Ming Chang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Carthamus tinctorius (CT), also named

© 2007 Chapman and Burke; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

Abstract- Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, L. is an oilseed crop that belongs to the family Asteracea. The genus Carthamus is comprised of 25 species including the only cultivated species of Carthamus tinctorius. So far, the characterization of safflower using molecular markers has been limited

is cultured widely for its pharmacological effects, but little is known regarding the genes related to the metabolic regulation of the safflower’s yellow pigment. To investigate genes related to safflor yellow biosynthesis, 454 pyrosequencing of flower RNA at different developmental stages was performed, generating large databases.In this study, we analyzed 454 sequencing data from different flowering stages in safflower. In total, 1,151,324 raw reads and 1,140,594 clean reads were produced, which were assembled into 51,591 unigenes with an average length of 679 bp and a maximum length of 5109 bp. Among the unigenes, 40,139 were in the early group, 39,768 were obtained from the full group and 28,316 were detected in both samples. With the threshold of “log2 ratio ≥ 1”, there were 34,464 differentially expressed genes, of which 18,043 were up-regulated and 16,421 were

† These authors contributed equally to this study

Phenotypic diversity was assessed for quantitative and qualitative traits in a salt-tolerant subset of the international safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) germplasm collection originating from 11 countries in three regions (Central Asia, Southwest Asia and Africa) of the Middle East

spermatogenesis and as a result sperm quality. Further studies are needed. Key Words: Carthamus tinctorius; Gonadal hormones; Rats; Semen analysis This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

markers that amplify reliably across 27 accessions (3 spe-cies) of the genus Carthamus. These markers exhibited a high level of polymorphism, with an average of 6.0 § 0.4 alleles per locus and an average gene diversity of 0.54 § 0.03 across Carthamus species. In terms of cross-taxon transferability, 50

Background Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), an Asteraceae member, yields high quality edible oil rich in unsaturated fatty acids and is resilient to dry conditions. The crop holds tremendous potential for improvement through concerted molecular breeding programs due to the avail-ability

Abstract Toxic and direct teratogenic potential of two dominant Iranian cultivars of Carthamus tinctorius (safflower), floret extracts, IL 111 and LRV 51 51, were investigated. The extracts are commonly used in foods and medicinal products. Neither death nor alteration of stereotype activities