title: The dynamics of FLOWERING LOCUS T expression encodes long-day information.
abstract: Long days repeatedly enhance the expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene during the evening and early night. This signal induces flowering despite low FT expression the rest of the day. To investigate whether this temporal behaviour transmits information, plants of Arabidopsis thaliana were exposed to different day-night cycles, including combinations that induced FT expression out of normal hours. Flowering time best correlated with the integral of FT expression over several days, corrected for a higher evening and early night sensitivity to FT. We generated a system to induce FT expression in a leaf removed 8-12 h later. The expression of flowering genes in the apex and flowering required cycles of induction repeated over several days. Evening and early night FT induction was the most effective. The temporal pattern of FT expression encodes information that discriminates long days from other inputs.
authors.affiliation: IFEVA, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Av. San Martín 4453, 1417, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krzymuski
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl von Linné Weg 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andrés
authors.affiliation: IFEVA, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Av. San Martín 4453, 1417, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cagnola
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl von Linné Weg 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Seonghoe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Fundación Instituto Leloir, IIBBA-CONICET, C1405BWE, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marcelo J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Yanovsky
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl von Linné Weg 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coupland
authors.affiliation: IFEVA, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Av. San Martín 4453, 1417, Buenos Aires, Argentina.|Fundación Instituto Leloir, IIBBA-CONICET, C1405BWE, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Jorge J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Casal
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000235:genetics; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018519:Meristem / Q000235:genetics; D017440:Photoperiod; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; FLOWERING LOCUS T; flowering; photoperiod; signalling dynamics