Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore 117604, Republic of Singapore.
Trends Plant Sci. 2012 Sep;17(9):556-62. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2012.05.001. Epub 2012 Jun 2.
The transition to flowering is a major developmental switch in the life cycle of plants. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), chromatin mechanisms play critical roles in flowering-time regulation through the expression control of key flowering-regulatory genes. Various conserved chromatin modifiers, plant-specific factors, and long noncoding RNAs are involved in chromatin regulation of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC, a potent floral repressor). The well-studied FLC regulation has provided a paradigm for chromatin-based control of other developmental genes. In addition, chromatin modification plays an important role in the regulation of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT, encoding florigen), which is widely conserved in angiosperm species. The chromatin mechanisms underlying FT regulation in Arabidopsis are likely involved in the regulation of FT relatives and, therefore, flowering-time control in other plants.
向花的转变是植物生命周期中的一个主要发育开关。在拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）中，染色质机制通过关键开花调节基因的表达控制在开花时间调节中发挥关键作用。各种保守的染色质修饰物、植物特异性因子和长非编码 RNA 参与 FLOWERING LOCUS C（FLC，一种有效的花抑制物）的染色质调节。研究充分的 FLC 调节为基于染色质的其他发育基因的控制提供了范例。此外，染色质修饰在 FLOWERING LOCUS T（编码成花素）的调节中起重要作用，成花素在被子植物物种中广泛保守。拟南芥中 FT 调节的染色质机制可能涉及到 FT 相关基因的调节，因此也涉及到其他植物的开花时间控制。
