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Plant chemical biology

Florigen takes two to tango

Nature Chemical Biology volume 7, pages 665–666 (2011)Cite this article

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A recent flurry of activity has defined the protein FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) as a mobile signal or 'florigen' that induces flowering. A new study has shown that a 14-3-3 protein links FT to a transcription factor at the plant apex to initiate flowering.

Over 75 years ago, it was shown that grafting one leaf from a plant induced to flower onto a nonflowering plant could cause it to bloom. The unknown molecules that crossed graft junctions to initiate flowering were called 'florigens', but none were identified even after many decades of research1. The identity of FT as a protein with the ability to accelerate flowering emerged in the late 1990s from studies of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana2,3. FT is made in the leaves, but its effects take place at the growing tip or shoot apex, where floral meristems are induced. FT itself is a small globular protein with no obvious signaling domains to account for its potent biological activity4. A few years later, it was found that to accelerate flowering, FT requires a transcription factor, FD, that is exclusively expressed in the plant apex5,6. This suggested that FT itself could be a mobile flowering signal, a possibility that was later confirmed in both Arabidopsis and rice7,8. However, the structural basis of the interaction between FT and FD remained unknown. Now, in an important study published in Nature, Taoka and colleagues9 solve this mystery with the structure of a complex of rice proteins containing FT and FD bridged by a 14-3-3 protein. They propose that FT docks with the 14-3-3 protein and then joins FD in the nucleus, where it can bind to DNA and initiate the transcription of floral meristem identity genes, triggering the formation of floral organs.

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Figure 1: The FAC and its stepwise assembly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemistry & Structural Biology Division, Joshua S. Mylne is at The University of Queensland, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.,

    Joshua S Mylne

  2. Philip A. Wigge is at the John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom.,

    Philip A Wigge

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  1. Joshua S Mylne
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  2. Philip A Wigge
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Correspondence to Joshua S Mylne.

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Mylne, J., Wigge, P. Florigen takes two to tango. Nat Chem Biol 7, 665–666 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.666

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