New EMBO Members Review
- The EMBO Journal (2004) 23, 1217 - 1222
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600117
Published online: 4 March 2004
Subject Categories:
Induction of flowering by seasonal changes in photoperiod
Iain Searle and George Coupland
- Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Carl von Linne Weg, Cologne, Germany
Correspondence to:
George Coupland, Department of Plant Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Carl von Linne Weg, 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany. Tel.: +49 221 5062 205; Fax: +49 221 5062 207; E-mail: coupland@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de
Received 3 November 2003; Accepted 13 January 2004
Abstract
In many plants, major developmental transitions such as the initiation of flowering are synchronized to the changing seasons. Day length provides one of the environmental cues used to achieve this. We describe the molecular mechanisms that measure day length and control flowering in Arabidopsis. Also, we compare these mechanisms with those that control flowering time in rice. This comparison suggests that components of the Arabidopsis regulatory network are conserved in other species, but that their regulation can be altered to generate different phenotypic responses.
Keywords:
- Arabidopsis,
- circadian clock,
- flowering,
- photoperiodism,
- vernalization
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