Move on up, it's time for change--mobile signals controlling photoperiod-dependent flowering.
Plants do not bloom randomly--but how do they know when and where to make flowers? Here, we review molecular mechanisms that integrate spatial and temporal information in day-length-dependent flowering. Primarily through genetic analyses in two species, Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, we today understand the essentials of two central issues in plant biology: how the appropriate photoperiod generates an inductive stimulus based on an external coincidence mechanism, and the nature of the mobile flowering signal, florigen, which relays photoperiod-dependent information from the leaf to the growing tip of the plant, the shoot apex.
Kobayashi
Yasushi
Y
Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany.
Weigel
Detlef
D
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017440:Photoperiod
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis