Eukaryotic cells use nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) to clear aberrant mRNAs from the cell, thus preventing the accumulation of truncated proteins. In Arabidopsis, two UP-Frameshift (UPF) proteins, UPF1 and UPF3, play a critical role in NMD. Although deficiency of UPF1 and UPF3 leads to various developmental defects, little is known about the mechanism underlying the regulation of flowering ...

Winter-annual ecotypes of Arabidopsis are relatively late flowering, unless the flowering of these ecotypes is promoted by exposure to cold (vernalization). This vernalization-suppressible, late-flowering phenotype results from the presence of dominant, late-flowering alleles at two loci, FRIGIDA (FRI) and FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). In this study, we report that flc null mutations result in early...

In many plants the transition from vegetative growth to flowering is controlled by environmental cues. One of these cues is day length or photoperiod, which synchronizes flowering of many species with the changing seasons. Recently, advances have been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms that confer photoperiodic control of flowering and, in particular, how inductive events occurring ...