Patterning of the floral organs is exquisitely controlled and executed by four classes of homeotic regulators. Among these, the class B and class C floral homeotic regulators are of central importance as they specify the male and female reproductive organs. Inappropriate induction of the class B gene APETALA3 (AP3) and the class C gene AGAMOUS (AG) causes reduced reproductive fitness and is pre...

The transition from vegetative to reproductive development is a central event in the plant life cycle. To time the induction of flowering correctly, plants integrate environmental and endogenous signals such as photoperiod, temperature and hormonal status. The hormone gibberellic acid (GA) has long been known to regulate flowering. However, the spatial contribution of GA signaling in flowering ...

Timing of the floral transition and inflorescence development strongly affect yield in barley (Hordeum vulgare). Therefore, we examined the effects of daylength and the photoperiod response gene PHOTOPERIOD1 (Ppd-H1) on barley development and analyzed gene expression changes in the developing leaves and main shoot apices (MSAs) of barley by RNA sequencing. The daylength sensitivity of MSA devel...

doi: 10.1111/j.1399-3054.2006.00724.x Flowering is an integral developmental process in angiosperms, crucial to reproductive success and continuity of the species through time. Some angiosperms complete their life cycle within a year (annual plants), and others have a longer reproductive life, which is characterized by the generation of new flowering and vegetative shoots every year (perennial ...

BACKGROUND The plant-specific transcriptional activator LEAFY (LFY) is a central regulator of the transition to reproductive development in Arabidopsis. LFY has a second, later role in the induction of floral homeotic gene expression. Available data suggests that, while LFY activity is controlled via interaction with tissue-specific coactivators, other mechanisms exist that regulate LFY activit...

Vernalization is a key requirement for the induction of flowering in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). The transcriptome of two genotypes with contrasting vernalization requirement was studied during primary (vernalization and short day conditions) and secondary induction (higher temperature and long day conditions) using an RNA-Seq approach. This revealed transcripts with expression prof...

The capacity to discriminate variations in day length allows plants to align flowering with the most favourable season of the year. This capacity has been altered by artificial selection when cultivated varieties became adapted to environments different from those of initial domestication. Rice flowering is promoted by short days when HEADING DATE 1 (Hd1) and EARLY HEADING DATE 1 (Ehd1) induce ...

The transition to flowering is tightly controlled by endogenous programs and environmental signals. We found that MSI1 is a novel flowering-time gene in Arabidopsis. Both partially complemented msi1 mutants and MSI1 antisense plants were late flowering, whereas ectopic expression of MSI1 accelerated flowering. Physiological experiments revealed that MSI1 is similar to genes from the autonomous ...

Differences in life-history strategy are thought to contribute to adaptation to specific environmental conditions. Among life-history traits in plants, flowering time and shoot morphology are particularly important for reproductive success. Even though flowering time and shoot morphology are linked, the evolutionary changes in the genetic circuitry that simultaneously affects both traits remain...

Recently, evidence has accunmulated to indicate that the photoperiodic control -of floral induction is mediated by an endogenous rhythm with periods of approximately 24 hours (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). It has long been known that the floral response of Biloxi soybean varies with the length of the photoperiod (4, 5, 6, 7, 18). The optimum response with 24-hour treatment cycles is o...