At a certain stage in their life-cycle plants flower, that is they undergo the transition from vegetative to reproductive development. The correct timing of this transition is crucial for reproductive success, so the plant integrates multiple environmental and endogenous signals to judge when to flower. The Dean laboratory is studying the importance of prolonged cold for flowering, a process kn...

Most of the natural variation in wheat vernalization response is determined by allelic differences in the MADS-box transcription factor VERNALIZATION1 (VRN1). Extended exposures to low temperatures during the winter (vernalization) induce VRN1 expression and promote the transition of the apical meristem to the reproductive phase. In contrast to its Arabidopsis homolog (APETALA1), which is mainl...

Wheat varieties with a winter growth habit require long exposures to low temperatures (vernalization) to accelerate flowering. Natural variation in four vernalization genes regulating this requirement has favored wheat adaptation to different environments. The first three genes (VRN1-VRN3) have been cloned and characterized before. Here we show that the fourth gene, VRN-D4, originated by the in...

Vernalization promotes flowering in Arabidopsis through epigenetic repression of the floral repressor, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). Vernalization, like other polycomb-mediated repression events, occurs in two stages; FLC repression is established at low temperatures, then maintained during subsequent growth at 22 degrees C. Low temperatures induce VIN3 activity, which is required for changes in his...

Vernalization is one of the most important traits for the adaptability of wheat; detecting variation in genes regulating the response of wheat to vernalization is of importance for classifying winter phenotypes. Ecotilling is a high throughput reverse genetics approach for detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes of a natural population. To simplify methodology and decrease...

BACKGROUND Allelic variation at the FRIGIDA (FRI) locus is a major contributor to natural variation of flowering time and vernalization requirement in Arabidopsis thaliana. Dominant FRI inhibits flowering by activating the expression of the MADS box transcriptional repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), which represses flowering prior to vernalization. Four FRI orthologues had been identified in th...