The Flowering Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited (Plant & Food Research) Mt Albert, Private Bag 92169, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2016 Oct;33:77-82. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2016.06.008. Epub 2016 Jun 24.
The great hunt for florigen, the universal, long distance flowering regulator proposed by Chailakhan in the 1930s, resulted in the discovery a decade ago that FT-like proteins fulfilled the predictions for florigen. They are small (∼175 amino acids), globular, phosphatidylethanolamine-binding (PEBP) proteins, phloem-expressed, graft-transmissible and able to move to the shoot apex to act as potent stimulators of flowering in many plants. Genes that regulate Arabidopsis FT protein movement and some features of Arabidopsis FT protein that make it an effective florigen have recently been identified. Although floral promotion via graft transmission of FT has not been demonstrated in trees, FT-like genes have been successfully applied to reducing the long juvenile (pre-flowering) phase of many trees enabling fast track breeding.
二十世纪三十年代，Chailakhan 提出了花生长素（florigen）的概念，它被认为是一种普遍存在的远距离开花调控因子。多年来，人们一直致力于寻找花生长素，十年前，人们发现 FT 样蛋白符合花生长素的预测。FT 样蛋白是一种小的（约 175 个氨基酸）、球形的、结合磷酸乙醇胺的（PEBP）蛋白，在韧皮部表达，可通过嫁接进行传递，并能移动到芽尖，在许多植物中作为有效的开花刺激物。最近，人们已经确定了调控拟南芥 FT 蛋白运动的基因以及使其成为有效花生长素的一些拟南芥 FT 蛋白特征。虽然通过嫁接传递 FT 来促进开花尚未在树木中得到证明，但 FT 样基因已成功应用于缩短许多树木的长幼年期（开花前阶段），从而实现快速的育种。
