Abstract
Plants commit to flowering based on endogenous and exogenous information that they can remember across mitotic cell divisions. Here, we review how signal perception and epigenetic memory converge at key integrator genes, and we show how variation in their regulatory circuits supports the diversity of plant lifestyles.
Highlights
Flowering at the appropriate season and age is crucial for reproductive success as open flowers are sensitive to adverse climatic conditions and seed maturation is costly in terms of energy and nutrient consumption
As the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL-FLOWER 1 (TFL1) genes of the spruce Picea abies repress flowering if expressed in A. thaliana, it has been argued that the repressive function is the more ancient one [22]
Despite their origin at the ‘root’ of angiosperms, the genetic modules implementing the functional connection between the clock/photoperiod and FT genes differ between plant families, some gene families are more likely components [23]
Summary
Flowering at the appropriate season and age is crucial for reproductive success as open flowers are sensitive to adverse climatic conditions and seed maturation is costly in terms of energy and nutrient consumption. To time flowering towards the appropriate season, photoperiod pathways track either day length or night length and, when a critical value is exceeded, induce florigen, a mobile signal produced in leaves that causes the reproductive transition in the meristems [4]. Polycarpic perennial plants cease to produce flowers after a defined reproductive period and resume vegetative growth until the flowering season This is usually achieved by preventing the reproductive transition of a subset of meristems, which support vegetative growth until the following reproductive cycle. The principles underlying molecular memories To integrate endogenous and exogenous signals that occur sequentially, plant cells need to ‘remember’ acquired information across mitotic cell divisions These memories must be erased to re-establish sensitivity to external signals either in the generation or within the same polycarpic individual during the reproductive cycle (Fig. 1). The second molecular memory is referred to as epigenetic and involves particular covalent modifications of chromosomal histone proteins and resulting local changes in chromatin (a) Monocarpic (Summer annual)
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