FT florigen proteins in photoperiodic signaling: Conservation and diversity in their regulation, structure, and function.
Gao H, Ding N, Wu Y, Coupland G
Plant Signaling
The potatoes on your plate and the tomatoes in your garden know when to flower and form tubers because of a molecular signal that reads day length — understanding how that signal works could help breeders create crops that fruit at exactly the right time for your climate.
Plants have an internal clock that senses how long the days are, and they use a special protein made in their leaves as a messenger to tell the rest of the plant when to flower or form tubers. This protein travels through the plant's veins all the way to the growing tips, where it teams up with other proteins to switch on the genes needed for flowering. Scientists have now mapped out how this system works in many plants — from wheat to potatoes to trees — and found that a clever relay keeps the signal going strong once it arrives.
Key Findings
The FT florigen protein is produced in leaf veins in response to day length, then moves through the plant's vascular system to the shoot tip to trigger flowering or tuber formation across diverse species including cereals, tomato, potato, and trees.
FT forms a functional complex with bZIP transcription factors and 14-3-3 proteins to activate target genes, while closely related 'anti-florigen' proteins (TFL1 paralogs) act as negative regulators that fine-tune the timing of developmental transitions.
A newly described relay mechanism shows that FT genes (or close relatives) are re-activated at the shoot tip after FT protein arrives — identified in cereals, tomato, Arabidopsis, and potato stolons — suggesting this amplification loop helps sustain and lock in the photoperiod-induced developmental switch.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A protein called Florigen (FT) acts as a seasonal timing signal in plants, traveling from leaves to growing tips to trigger flowering, tuber formation, and bud growth. This review synthesizes how FT works across many species and reveals a relay mechanism that helps plants commit to and sustain major developmental changes.
Abstract Preview
Seasonal changes in day length regulate plant growth and development. FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) proteins are widely conserved effectors of photoperiod-induced flowering and also promote tuberization i...
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