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Growth-mediated sensing of long-term cold in plants

The prolonged cold of winter is required for the flowering of many plants. Now the identification of a previously unknown long-term cold-sensing mechanism helps to reveal how plants are able to time their flowering correctly.
  1. Hiroyuki Iida

    1. Hiroyuki Iida is at the Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland.

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  2. Ari Pekka Mähönen

    1. Ari Pekka Mähönen is at the Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland.

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Plants of the same species, growing at a particular location, typically all flower at the same time. This synchronous flowering is important for maximizing the probability of successful reproduction through pollination. The response of plants to cold exposure provides them with a way to align their flowering in spring. Because daily temperatures fluctuate, long-term rather than short-term cold is the key signal required for a flowering cue; prolonged cold followed by warmer weather provides an indication that winter has ended, bringing the advent of spring and flowering time. Plants therefore need to track how long they have experienced the cold conditions of winter. Writing in Nature, Zhao et al.1 reveal how long-term cold is integrated as quantitative information in plants.

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Nature 583, 690-691 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02060-7

References

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