Avner Cohen Ph.D.

Research Interests

• Genetics and Breeding of ornamental Plants
• Genetic transformation of bulbous crops.
• Interspecific hybridization,
• Plant Tissue culture and molecular biology

Current Research Objectives:

• The breeding of various ornamental bulbs and corms (gladiolus, Lilium, Narcissus, Ornithogalum, Hippeastrum ..) for the export of cut flowers, flowering pot plants and planting material.
• Genetic transformation for virus- and disease resistance in bulbous crops (Lilium, Ornithogalum, Gladiolus), particle bombardment as well as Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.
• Overcoming incompatibility barriers in interspecific crosses between distantly related species.

Recent Publications

• Ben-Jaacov, J., A. Cohen, E. Tal and A.A. Watad. 1990. In vitro propagation of Retama reatam Webb. (Confidential paper for a grant supported by Sun World International, Indio, California and was reviewed confidentially as if intended for a publication in a reviewed journal)
• Cohen, A. and Barzilay, A. 1991. Miniature gladiolus cultivars bred for winter flowering HortScience 26: 216-218.
  Steinitz, B., A. Cohen, Z. Goldberg & M. Kochba. 1991. Precocious galdiolus corm formations in liquid shake cultures. Plant Cell Tiss. Org. Cult. 26: 63-70.
• Barzilay, A., J. Ben-Jaacov, A. Cohen, A. Ion and A.H. Halevy. 1992. Minigladiolus as flowering pot plant. Scientia Horticulturae 49: 117-124.
• Cohen, A. and C.P. Meredith. 1992. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Lilium. Acta Horticulturae 325: 611-618.
• Klein, M., I. Caspy, Y. Ben-Dov, A. Cohen and A. Ion. 1992. Observation on light and drying of gladiolus leaves in Israel. Hassadeh 71: 1273-1274 (in Hebrew).
• Cohen, A., A. Harazy, H.D. Rabinowitch and R. Stav. 1995. Selection for early flowering in blue statice (Limoniun sinuatum Mill.) Acta Hort.420:118-124.
• Cohen, J., Gera, A ., Fincklstein, S. and Cohen, A. 1995. Virus diseases of new ornamental crops - Ornithogalum. Dapey Meida (Ornamentals Growers Magazine). 4, 67-69.
• Efron, H. D. Amit, and A. Cohen. 1996. Introduction of Ixiolirion tataricum as an ornamental plant. Dapey Meida. (Ornamentals Growers Magazine). 12(2):57-60.
• Efron, H., and A. Cohen. 1997. Introduction and selection of Ixiolirion tataricum for culture in Israel. Acta Horticulturae, 430:719-725.
• Sandler-Ziv, D.,Cohen, A., Ion, A., Kochba, M., Efron, H., Amit, D. and Finkelstein, S., 1997. Improving Hippeastrum propagation and bulbils yield by cutting and incubation techniques. Acta Horticulturae, 430:355-360.
• Sandler-Ziv, D., Cohen, A., Ion, A., Efron, H., and Amit, D., 1997. A two year production cycle of Israeli-grown Hippeastrum bulbs fro bulb sectioning to Christmas flowering. Acta Horticulturae, 430:361-368.
• Sandler-Ziv, D., Ion, A., Cohen, A., Fintea C., Gilad Z., Ahiam M. and Zur N. 1999. The influence of preplanting treatment of Hippeastrum propagation material on bulb growth and development. Dapey Meida. (Ornamentals Growers Magazine).10: 66-73.
• Lipsky, A., Cohen, A., Gaba, V., Kamo, K., Gera, A., and Watad, A. (2000). Transformation of Lilium longiflorum plants for cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistance by particle bombardment. 10th International Symposium on Virus Diseases of Ornamental Plants. Annapolis, MD, USA (in press).
  

Current Projects

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