Cockram James, Jones Huw, Leigh Fiona J, O'Sullivan Donal, Powell Wayne, Laurie David A, Greenland Andrew J
National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK.
J Exp Bot. 2007;58(6):1231-44. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erm042. Epub 2007 Apr 9.
The control of flowering is central to reproductive success in plants, and has a major impact on grain yield in crop species. The global importance of temperate cereal crops such as wheat and barley has meant emphasis has long been placed on understanding the genetics of flowering in order to enhance yield. Leads gained from the dissection of the molecular genetics of model species have combined with comparative genetic approaches, recently resulting in the isolation of the first flowering time genes in wheat and barley. This paper reviews the genetics and genes involved in cereal flowering pathways and the current understanding of how two of the principal genes, Vrn and Ppd, have been involved in domestication and adaptation to local environments, and the implications for future breeding programmes are discussed.
开花调控是植物繁殖成功的核心，对作物的籽粒产量有重大影响。诸如小麦和大麦等温带谷类作物在全球具有重要地位，这意味着长期以来人们一直着重于了解开花的遗传学以提高产量。从模式物种分子遗传学剖析中获得的线索与比较遗传学方法相结合，最近已成功分离出小麦和大麦中的首个开花时间基因。本文综述了谷类作物开花途径中涉及的遗传学和基因，以及目前对两个主要基因Vrn和Ppd如何参与驯化和适应当地环境的理解，并讨论了其对未来育种计划的影响。
