AcFT promotes kiwifruit in vitro flowering when overexpressed and Arabidopsis flowering when expressed in the vasculature under its own promoter.

Kiwifruit () has three () genes, , and , with differential expression and potentially divergent roles. was previously shown to be expressed in source leaves and induced in dormant buds by winter chilling. Here, we show that promotes flowering in , despite a short sequence insertion not present in other -like genes. A 3.5-kb promoter region contained all the regulatory elements required to mediate vascular expression in transgenic (Arabidopsis). The promoter activation was initially confined to the veins in the distal end of the leaf, before extending to the veins in the base of the leaf, and was detected in inductive and noninductive photoperiods. The 3-kb and 2.7-kb promoter regions of and , respectively, demonstrated different activation patterns in Arabidopsis, corresponding to differential expression in kiwifruit. Expression of cDNA from the promoter was capable to induce early flowering in transgenic Arabidopsis in noninductive photoperiods. Further, expression of cDNA fused to the green fluorescent protein was detected in the vasculature and was also capable to advance flowering in noninductive photoperiods. Taken together, these studies implicate in regulation of kiwifruit flowering time and as a candidate for kiwifruit florigen.