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Factors Affecting Flowering Seasonality

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Abstract

Environmental regulation of flowering seasonality and set seed is critical for this survival as it allows seeds to develop in the most favourable conditions. Recent genetic and molecular approaches provide a basis for understanding how plants use seasonal changes in natural daylight duration and temperature to achieve reproducible timing of flowering. Recent studies have led to the identification of members of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) in Arabidopsis, and its orthologs in several plant species act as florigen. In addition to the floral inducer florigen, the systemic floral inhibitor anti-florigen, anti-florigenic FT/TFL1 family protein (AFT), has been identified from a wild chrysanthemum and plays a predominant role in the obligate photoperiodic response. In Arabidopsis, the molecular basis for vernalization process has been revealed. The key factor in the vernalization pathway is a repressor of flowering, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). In temperate cereals that require vernalization to flower, three genes possibly participate in a regulatory loop to control the timing of flowering, namely, VRN1, VRN2, and VRN3. VRN2 is a key factor for flowering repression in winter varieties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Yohei Higuchi

  2. Institute of Vegetable and Floriculture Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Fujimoto, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0852, Japan

    Tamotsu Hisamatsu

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  1. Yohei Higuchi
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  2. Tamotsu Hisamatsu
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Correspondence to Tamotsu Hisamatsu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Plant Factory Association (NPO), Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan

    Toyoki Kozai

  2. Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazuhiro Fujiwara

  3. Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Erik S. Runkle

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Higuchi, Y., Hisamatsu, T. (2016). Factors Affecting Flowering Seasonality. In: Kozai, T., Fujiwara, K., Runkle, E. (eds) LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1848-0_6

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