Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.
Nat Genet. 2012 Dec;44(12):1393-8. doi: 10.1038/ng.2465. Epub 2012 Nov 11.
The transition to flowering is a major determinant of plant architecture, and variation in the timing of flowering can have profound effects on inflorescence architecture, flower production and yield. Here, we show that the tomato mutant terminating flower (tmf) flowers early and converts the multiflowered inflorescence into a solitary flower as a result of precocious activation of a conserved floral specification complex encoded by ANANTHA (AN) and FALSIFLORA (FA). Without TMF, the coordinated flowering process is disrupted, causing floral identity genes, such as AN and members of the SEPALLATA (SEP) family, to activate precociously, while the expression of flowering transition genes, such as FRUITFULL (FUL), is delayed. Indeed, driving AN expression precociously is sufficient to cause early flowering, and this expression transforms multiflowered inflorescences into normal solitary flowers resembling those of the Solanaceae species petunia and tobacco. Thus, by timing AN activation, TMF synchronizes flower formation with the gradual reproductive transition, which, in turn, has a key role in determining simple versus complex inflorescences.
向花转变是植物结构的主要决定因素，而开花时间的变化会对花序结构、花的产生和产量产生深远的影响。在这里，我们表明番茄突变体终花（tmf）提前开花，并由于 ANANTHA（AN）和 FALSIFLORA（FA）编码的保守花特异基因复合物的早熟激活，将多花的花序转变为单花。没有 TMF，协调的开花过程就会被打乱，导致花的身份基因，如 AN 和 SEPALLATA（SEP）家族的成员，过早地激活，而开花过渡基因，如 FRUITFULL（FUL）的表达则会延迟。事实上，提前激活 AN 的表达足以导致提前开花，而这种表达将多花的花序转变为类似于茄科植物矮牵牛和烟草的正常单花。因此，通过定时激活 AN，TMF 使花的形成与逐渐的生殖转变同步，这反过来又在决定简单花序和复杂花序方面起着关键作用。
