1. Molecular basis of flowering under natural long-day conditions in Arabidopsis
- Author
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Nhu H Nguyen, Michael F. Covington, Young Hun Song, Sarah K. Hodge, He Huang, Nayoung Lee, Kentaro Shimizu, Takato Imaizumi, Ella R Taagen, Reiko Akiyama, Dianne Laboy Cintrón, Dae Yeon Hwang, Andrew J. Millar, Akane Kubota, Dmitri A. Nusinow, and Michael S. Kwon
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Time Factors ,Light ,Photoperiod ,Arabidopsis ,Flowers ,Plant Science ,Long day ,Flowering time ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Phytochrome A ,Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ,Botany ,Morning ,biology ,Arabidopsis Proteins ,fungi ,food and beverages ,biology.organism_classification ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,030104 developmental biology ,chemistry ,Florigen ,Transcription Factors ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
Plants sense light and temperature changes to regulate flowering time. Here, we show that expression of the Arabidopsis florigen gene, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), peaks in the morning during spring, a different pattern than we observe in the laboratory. Providing our laboratory growth conditions with a red/far-red light ratio similar to open-field conditions and daily temperature oscillation is sufficient to mimic the FT expression and flowering time in natural long days. Under the adjusted growth conditions, key light signalling components, such as phytochrome A and EARLY FLOWERING 3, play important roles in morning FT expression. These conditions stabilize CONSTANS protein, a major FT activator, in the morning, which is probably a critical mechanism for photoperiodic flowering in nature. Refining the parameters of our standard growth conditions to more precisely mimic plant responses in nature can provide a powerful method for improving our understanding of seasonal response.
- Published
- 2018
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