Although plastid genomes of flowering plants are typically highly conserved regarding their size, gene content and order, there are some exceptions. Ericaceae, a large and diverse family of flowering plants, warrants special attention within the context of plastid genome evolution because it includes both non-photosynthetic and photosynthetic species with rearranged plastomes and putative losse...

The highly conserved florigen gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) functions at the core of the flowering pathways. Extensive studies have examined the transcriptional regulation of FT; however, other layers of FT regulation remain unclear. Here, we identified miR5200 a Pooideae-specific microRNA that is expressed in leaves and targets Brachypodium distachyon FT orthologs for mRNA cleavage. miR5200 was ...

Plants undergo two major post-embryonic developmental transitions--the juvenile-to-adult vegetative transition (vegetative phase change) and the adult-to-reproductive transition (flowering). In woody plants, these transitions can be separated by years, but in herbaceous species they are often very close together, making it difficult to differentiate the effects of vegetative phase change and fl...

Plants interact with their environment and they often flower earlier under stress conditions, but how such stress-induced flowering is regulated remains poorly understood. Here evidence is presented that the miR169 family plays a key role in stress-induced flowering in plants. The microRNA (miRNA) miR169 family members are up-regulated in Arabidopsis, maize, and soybean under abiotic stresses. ...

It has been found that floral induced stems of flowering tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Wis. 38) plants contain large amounts of rapidly renaturing DNA, whereas noninduced stems of vegetative plants contain only small amounts. In addition, it has been shown that the striking qualitative difference in DNA between stems of flowering and vegetative plants mimics the over-all quantitative differenc...

The timing of the transition to flowering is carefully controlled by plants in order to optimize sexual reproduction and the ensuing production of seeds, grains, and fruits. The genetic networks that regulate floral induction are best characterized in the temperate eudicot Arabidopsis in which the florigen gene FT plays a major role in promoting the transition to flowering. Legumes are an impor...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa) is a popular commercial plant for its attractive and colourful flowers. However, the genetic mechanism of flowering time regulation in gloxinia is largely unknown. Recent studies on model plants have elucidated that miR159 acts as a negative regulator of floral transition in short-day photoperiods. The aim of this study was to investigate whethe...

TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) is a key regulator of flowering time and the development of the inflorescence meristem in Arabidopsis thaliana. TFL1 and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) have highly conserved amino acid sequences but opposite functions. For example, FT promotes flowering and TFL1 represses it; FT-overexpressing plants and TFL1 loss-of-function mutants have a similar phenotype production of termin...

What is the flowering transition? It marks the end of vegetative growth and the beginning of reproductive development in flowering plants. The physiological changes that cause it are referred to as floral induction. What is SAM? The shoot apical meristem — a group of undifferentiated progenitor cells that occupies the tip of the stem. It gives rise to both vegetative organs (leaves) and reprodu...