vernalization

/ vûr′nə-lĭ-zā′shən /

1. The subjection of seeds or seedlings to low temperature in order to hasten plant development and flowering. Vernalization is commonly used for crop plants such as winter rye and is possible because the seeds and buds of many plants require cold in order to break dormancy.

Example Sentences

Soviet scientists who did not share Lysenko’s “vernalization” theories lost their positions or, like the plant geneticist, Nikolai Vavilov, starved to death in a gulag.

From Scientific American

This cold-mediated process, called vernalization, has been studied for many decades, and some of the key underlying molecular mechanisms have been discovered.

From Nature

The REM subfamily is functionally related to vernalization and flower development18.

From Nature

Future functional studies will help determine the function of these duplicated genes in quinoa, which, unlike B. vulgaris, does not require vernalization.

From Nature

You induce bolting by giving the plant an artificial winter, a process called vernalization after the Latin word for spring.

From Washington Post