To bloom or not to bloom: role of microRNAs in plant flowering.
During the course of their life cycles, plants undergo various morphological and physiological changes underlying juvenile-to-adult and adult-to-flowering phase transitions. To flower or not to flower is a key step of plasticity of a plant toward the start of its new life cycle. In addition to the previously revealed intrinsic genetic programs, exogenous cues, and endogenous cues, a class of small non-coding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), plays a key role in plants making the decision to flower by integrating into the known flowering pathways. This review highlights the age-dependent flowering pathway with a focus on a number of timing miRNAs in determining such a key process. The contributions of other miRNAs which exist mainly outside the age pathway are also discussed. Approaches to study the flowering-determining miRNAs, their interactions, and applications are presented.
Provincial State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; School of Biotechnology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, U.P. 201312, India; Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Research Center (BRC), Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA.
Sachin
S
Teotia
Provincial State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Research Center (BRC), Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA. Electronic address: gtang1@mtu.edu.
Guiliang
G
Tang
D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant
AP2-like; SPL; flowering time; miR156; miR172; miRNA; phase transition