Dr Samach is interested in understanding how different plant species use different environmental cues (changes in temperature, photoperiod, light quality and light intensity) and internal cues (fruit load) to correctly time and control the transition to flowering. He has studied this in Arabidopsis, Tomato and Medicago truncatula. In the last 10 years, they are more focused on fruit trees. The current approach in his lab is to combine research in three fields: A). Focusing on a specific agricultural crop (Passiflora edulis) grown in Israel, yet important world-wide, and contributing to its success. Weare breeding for new cultivars with novel characteristics B). Understanding and overcoming an important and general developmental constraint in fruit trees- Alternate bearing. Our studies are mostly focused on apples and olives. C). Understanding the mechanism by which neighboring fruitlets induce fruitlet abscission in fruit trees (studying apples and Avocado).