Integration of Spatial and Temporal Information During Floral Induction in Arabidopsis

Flowering of Arabidopsis is regulated by several environmental and endogenous signals. An important integrator of these inputs is the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene, which encodes a small, possibly mobile protein. A primary response to floral induction is the activation of FT RNA expression in leaves. Because flowers form at a distant site, the shoot apex, these data suggest that FT primarily controls the timing of flowering. Integration of temporal and spatial information is mediated in part by the bZIP transcription factor FD, which is already expressed at the shoot apex before floral induction. A complex of FT and FD proteins in turn can activate floral identity genes such as APETALA1 (AP1).

[1]  J. Zeevaart Physiology of Flower Formation , 1976 .

[2]  Javier F. Palatnik,et al.  Specific effects of microRNAs on the plant transcriptome. , 2005, Developmental cell.

[3]  F. Madueño,et al.  Different roles of flowering-time genes in the activation of floral initiation genes in Arabidopsis. , 1997, The Plant cell.

[4]  R. Foster,et al.  Plant bZIP protein DNA binding specificity. , 1993, Journal of molecular biology.

[5]  Hitoshi Onouchi,et al.  CONSTANS mediates between the circadian clock and the control of flowering in Arabidopsis , 2001, Nature.

[6]  M. Koornneef,et al.  A genetic and physiological analysis of late flowering mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana , 1991, Molecular and General Genetics MGG.

[7]  N. Adir,et al.  Tomato SP-Interacting Proteins Define a Conserved Signaling System That Regulates Shoot Architecture and Flowering Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.010293. , 2001, The Plant Cell Online.

[8]  Koji Goto,et al.  TERMINAL FLOWER2, an Arabidopsis Homolog of HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN1, Counteracts the Activation of FLOWERING LOCUS T by CONSTANS in the Vascular Tissues of Leaves to Regulate Flowering Time Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.016 , 2003, The Plant Cell Online.

[9]  I. Henderson,et al.  Control of Arabidopsis flowering: the chill before the bloom , 2004, Development.

[10]  Shelley Hepworth,et al.  CONSTANS acts in the phloem to regulate a systemic signal that induces photoperiodic flowering of Arabidopsis , 2004, Development.

[11]  Robert Turgeon,et al.  Graft Transmission of a Floral Stimulant Derived from CONSTANS1 , 2004, Plant Physiology.

[12]  Hajime Sakai,et al.  Regulation of Flowering Time and Floral Organ Identity by a MicroRNA and Its APETALA2-Like Target Genes Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.016238. , 2003, The Plant Cell Online.

[13]  Sandya Liyanarachchi,et al.  A high performance test of differential gene expression for oligonucleotide arrays , 2003, Genome Biology.

[14]  J. Chory,et al.  Activation tagging of the floral inducer FT. , 1999, Science.

[15]  Detlef Weigel,et al.  Dissection of floral induction pathways using global expression analysis , 2003, Development.

[16]  Stefan R. Henz,et al.  A gene expression map of Arabidopsis thaliana development , 2005, Nature Genetics.

[17]  Y. Kobayashi,et al.  A pair of related genes with antagonistic roles in mediating flowering signals. , 1999, Science.

[18]  Z. Schwarz‐Sommer,et al.  Distinct roles of CONSTANS target genes in reproductive development of Arabidopsis. , 2000, Science.

[19]  M. Mandel,et al.  A gene triggering flower formation in Arabidopsis , 1995, Nature.

[20]  D. Weigel,et al.  A genetic framework for floral patterning , 1998, Nature.

[21]  M. Banfield,et al.  The structure of Antirrhinum centroradialis protein (CEN) suggests a role as a kinase regulator. , 2000, Journal of molecular biology.

[22]  J. Glazebrook,et al.  Arabidopsis : a laboratory manual , 2002 .

[23]  R. Amasino,et al.  Role of chromatin modification in flowering-time control. , 2005, Trends in plant science.

[24]  P. Huijser,et al.  Functional analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana SBP-box gene SPL3: a novel gene involved in the floral transition. , 1997, The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology.

[25]  S. Kay,et al.  Molecular basis of seasonal time measurement in Arabidopsis , 2002, Nature.

[26]  D. Ravenscroft,et al.  Photoreceptor Regulation of CONSTANS Protein in Photoperiodic Flowering , 2004, Science.