Late-flowering ecotypes and mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana and the related crucifer Thlaspi arvense flower early after cold treatment (vernalization). Treatment with the DNA demethylating agent 5-azacytidine induced nonvernalized plants to flower significantly earlier than untreated controls. Cytidine at similar concentrations had no effect on time to flower. In contrast, late-flowering mutant...

The MADS box gene, AGAMOUS-LIKE 20 (AGL20), integrates environmental and endogenous flowering signals in Arabidopsis thaliana. In order to determine if its role is conserved in other plants, we isolated AGL20 orthologs from Brassica campestris, Cardamine flexuosa and Draba nemorosa. The putative amino acid sequences of the orthologs were 94 to 97% identical. We analyzed the flowering phenotype ...

A late-flowering mutant was isolated from rice T-DNA-tagging lines. T-DNA had been integrated into the K-box region of Oryza sativa MADS50 (OsMADS50), which shares 50.6% amino acid identity with the Arabidopsis MADS-box gene SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO 1/AGAMOUS-LIKE 20 (SOC1/AGL20). While overexpression of OsMADS50 caused extremely early flowering at the callus stage, OsMADS50 RNAi plan...

Compared with the animal kingdom, fertilization is particularly complex in flowering plants (angiosperms). Sperm cells of angiosperms have lost their motility and require transportation as a passive cargo by the pollen tube cell to the egg apparatus (egg cell and accessory synergid cells). Sperm cell release from the pollen tube occurs after intensive communication between the pollen tube cell ...

Transcription of the vernalization1 gene (VRN1) is induced by prolonged cold (vernalization) to trigger flowering of cereal crops, such as wheat and barley. VRN1 encodes a MADS box transcription factor that promotes flowering by regulating the expression of other genes. Here we use transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) to identify direct targ...

Due to its critical importance in crop yield, the photoperiodic regulation of flowering time is considered an important trait in sorghum breeding programs. In this study, quantitative trait loci for flowering time were detected using an F(2) population derived from a cross between Kikuchi Zairai, a late-flowering cultivar originating from Japan and SC112, an early-flowering cultivar originating...

Background: The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between the sexual reproduction and the resource allocation in a natural Polygonatum humile population grown in a temperate mixed forest gap. For this aim, the plant size, the node which flower was formed, the fruiting rate, and the dry weight of each organ were monitored from June 2014 to August 2015. Results: Firstly, in 3–13-l...

Endogenous genetic factors and environmental signals control the time of flowering in plants. One of the environmental signals is photoperiod. Genetic control mechanisms for the photoperiodic response of flowering of long-day plants (LDPs) have been extensively analyzed through the use of Arabidopsis as a model plant (for review, see Coupland, 1998; Levy and Dean, 1998; Samach and Coupland, 200...

Reproductive strategies, sexual selection, and their relationship with the phenotype of individuals are topics widely studied in animals, but this information is less abundant for plants. Variability in flowering phenology among individuals has direct impact on their fitness, but how reproductive phenology is affected by the size of the individuals needs further study. We quantified the floweri...

In nature, herbivorous insects and plant pathogens are generally abundant when plants are flowering. Thus, plants face a diversity of attackers during their reproductive phase. Plant responses to one attacker can interfere with responses to a second attacker, and phytohormones that orchestrate plant reproduction are also involved in resistance to insect and pathogen attack. We quantified phytoh...