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Flowering time regulation: Agrochemical control of flowering

Nature Plants volume 3, Article number: 17045 (2017) Cite this article

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The time of flowering is important in crop production. Rice has now been genetically engineered to respond to agrochemical spraying, which results in floral induction. This research offers new perspectives to control the phenological development of crops in the field.

The onset of flowering is an important switch in the life cycle of a crop plant that has great impact on seed and fruit yield and stress tolerance. However, flowering must be avoided in vegetative crops. Plant breeders have been selecting for adapted flowering and this has resulted in regionally adapted cultivars. However, weather conditions are often unpredictable. Therefore, controlling flowering by a simple chemical treatment has been an intriguing aim. In this issue of Nature Plants, Ryo Okada and colleagues report on rice that responds to an agrochemical treatment by initiating flowering1.

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Figure 1: A simplified scheme of floral transition in rice in response to an agrochemical treatment.

References

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Affiliations

  1. Christian Jung is in the Plant Breeding Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, D-24098 Kiel, Germany.

    Christian Jung

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  1. Christian Jung
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Correspondence to Christian Jung.

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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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Jung, C. Flowering time regulation: Agrochemical control of flowering. Nature Plants 3, 17045 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.45

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.45

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