Flowering articles from across Nature Portfolio

Giaume et al. describe the function of a rice florigen-like protein expressed at the shoot apical meristem, required to promote phase transition and shape panicle architecture.

CRY2 mediates photoperiod-responsive floral initiation in Arabidopsis. Here the authors show that CRY2 also regulates temperature sensitive flowering and that CRY2 can interact with and regulate the splicing factor CIS1 to affect alternative splicing of transcripts that regulate flowering.

The genome of <i>Aechmea fasciata <i > , a common house plant and popular bromelioid provides insights into its evolution.

Maximization of reproductive success is critical for plant fitness. To this end, the flowering process must be finely tuned. We show that the rice florigen-like protein FT-L1 contributes to plant entrance into the reproductive phase and enables a balanced progression of inflorescence development.

Seasonal control of flowering is a dramatic example of interactions between genes and environment, and is mostly studied in growth chambers. However, switching from natural settings to artificial conditions affects phenotypes. More natural responses in cabinets can be obtained by only modifying a few environmental parameters.

Biennial plants require exposure to the cold of winter to overcome a block to flowering in the spring. The molecular role of FRIGIDA, a key component of the system that establishes the cold requirement in Arabidopsis, is to assemble a protein super-complex that promotes expression of a flowering repressor in the autumn.