title: Flowering responses to seasonal cues: what's new?
abstract: Seasonal cues of day length or winter cold trigger flowering of many species. Forward and reverse genetic approaches are revealing the mechanisms by which these responses are conferred. Homologues of the Arabidopsis thaliana protein FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) are widely used to mediate seasonal responses to day length and act as graft-transmissible promoters or repressors of flowering. Winter cold in A. thaliana promotes flowering by repressing transcription of the MADS box gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). The mechanism by which this occurs involves a complex interplay of different forms of long noncoding RNAs induced at the FLC locus during cold and changes in the chromatin of FLC. In perennial relatives of A. thaliana, flowering also requires the age-dependent downregulation of miRNA156 before winter.
authors: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, D-50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors: Maida
authors: M
authors: Romera-Branchat
authors: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, D-50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors: Fernando
authors: F
authors: Andrés
authors: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, D-50829 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: coupland@mpipz.mpg.de.
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Coupland
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D003080:Cold Temperature; D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000502:physiology; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000502:physiology; D012621:Seasons; D015533:Transcriptional Activation / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis; D022661:RNA, Untranslated