BACKGROUND AND AIMS The timing of flowering and summer dormancy induction plays a central role in the adaptation of Mediterranean geophytes to changes in the length of the growth season along rainfall gradients. Our aim was to analyse the role of the variation in the responses of flowering and summer dormancy to vernalization, daylength and growth temperature for the adaptation of Poa bulbosa, ...

BACKGROUND The ability to induce flowering on demand is of significant biotechnological interest. FT protein has been recently identified as an important component of the mobile flowering hormone, florigen, whose function is conserved across the plant kingdom. We therefore focused on manipulation of both endogenous and heterologous FT genes to develop a floral induction system where flowering w...

Leaves are thought to be the primary carbon source for reproduction in plants, so a positive relationship between vegetative size and reproductive output is expected, establishing a trade-off between time to reproduction and reproductive output. A common response to higher temperatures due to climate changes is the induction of earlier transition into reproduction. Thus, in annual plants, earli...

†Background and Aims Ageing effects may be due to dysfunction leading to decreasing reproduction and survival with age. In plants, however, other (physiological) causes, associated with size for example, may also play a role. Iteroparous plants with genetically variable life spans can be helpful in unravelling these two aspects of changes associated with growing older. †Methods In a long-term e...

CONSTANS (CO) promotes flowering of Arabidopsis in response to long photoperiods. Transgenic plants carrying CO fused with the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter (35S::CO) flowered earlier than did the wild type and were almost completely insensitive to length of day. Genes required for CO to promote flowering were identified by screening for mutations that suppress the effect of 35S::CO. Fo...