Understanding the genetic basis of natural phenotypic variation is of great importance, particularly since selection can act on this variation to cause evolution. We examined expression and allelic variation in candidate flowering time loci in Brassica rapa plants derived from a natural population and showing a broad range in the timing of first flowering. The loci of interest were orthologs of...

In Larix, reproductive buds most often occur terminally on short shoots, but they can also differentiate in lateral positions on long shoots. The phenology of long and short shoots differs considerably, with short shoots breaking bud and expanding about 5 weeks before the start of long shoot extension. Foliar sprays of GA(4/7) were applied to 160 branches on 10 greenhouse-grown Larix laricina (...

We examine the flowering phenology of the cultural iconic Spring Snowflake Leucojum vernum, a considerable tourist attraction, recorded from two sites in western Poland. Flowering dates at the two sites were closely correlated but about 6 days later at the more natural area. The end of flowering was associated with the start of canopy leafing. Early flowering was related to a longer flowering s...

Flowering is a pivotal event in the life cycle of plants. miR172 has been widely confirmed to play critical roles in flowering time control by regulating its target gene expression in Arabidopsis. However, the role of its counterpart in soybean remains largely unclear. In the present study, we found that the gma-miR172a was regulated by a GIGANTEA ortholog, GmGIa, in soybean through miRNA metab...

Wheat landraces carry abundant genetic variation in heading and flowering times. Here, we studied flowering-related traits of two Nepalese varieties, KU-4770 and KU-180 and a Japanese wheat cultivar, Shiroganekomugi (SGK). These three wheat varieties showed similar flowering time in a common garden experiment. In total, five significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for three examined traits, ...

Recent advances in rice flowering studies have shown that the accurate control of flowering by photoperiod is regulated by key mechanisms that involve the regulation of flowering genes including Heading date1 (Hd1), Early hd1 (Ehd1), Hd3a, and RFT1. The chromatin mechanism involved in the regulation of rice flowering genes is presently not well known. Here we show that the rice enhancer of zest...

In this study flowering time and other important morphologic traits were evaluated during two years in F1 almond progenies of seventy two seedlings from cross between the intermediate flowering Italian cultivar ‘Tuono’ and the extra-late blooming Iranian cultivar ‘Shahrood-12’. A modified-bulk segregant analysis in combination with the application of the 140 RAPD primers, 87 nuclear ...

The timing of flowering initiation is a fundamental trait for the adaptation of annual plants to different environments. Large amounts of intraspecific quantitative variation have been described for it among natural accessions of many species, but the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms underlying this genetic variation are mainly being determined in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. To f...

Many aspects of plant development are regulated by photoreceptor function and the circadian clock. Loss-of-function mutations in the Arabidopsis EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) and PHYTOCHROME B (PHYB) genes cause early flowering and influence the activity of circadian clock-regulated processes. We demonstrate here that the relative abundance of the ELF3 protein, which is a novel nucleus-localized pro...

Climate change is causing many plants to flower earlier in spring, exposing them to novel selection pressures, including-potentially-pollinator shortages. Over 2 years that contrasted in timing of flowering onset, we studied reproductive strategies, pollen limitation, and selection on flowering time in Mertensia fusiformis, a self-incompatible, spring-flowering perennial. Plants opened most of ...