Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.
Department of Biosciences, Durham University, Stockton Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK.
Plant Physiol. 2024 Apr 30;195(1):190-212. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiae109.
Plant species have evolved different requirements for environmental/endogenous cues to induce flowering. Originally, these varying requirements were thought to reflect the action of different molecular mechanisms. Thinking changed when genetic and molecular analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that a network of environmental and endogenous signaling input pathways converge to regulate a common set of "floral pathway integrators." Variation in the predominance of the different input pathways within a network can generate the diversity of requirements observed in different species. Many genes identified by flowering time mutants were found to encode general developmental and gene regulators, with their targets having a specific flowering function. Studies of natural variation in flowering were more successful at identifying genes acting as nodes in the network central to adaptation and domestication. Attention has now turned to mechanistic dissection of flowering time gene function and how that has changed during adaptation. This will inform breeding strategies for climate-proof crops and help define which genes act as critical flowering nodes in many other species.
植物物种已经进化出不同的环境/内源性信号要求来诱导开花。最初，这些不同的要求被认为反映了不同分子机制的作用。当拟南芥的遗传和分子分析揭示出一个环境和内源性信号输入途径的网络汇聚在一起调节一组共同的“花途径整合器”时，这种想法发生了变化。网络中不同输入途径的优势变化可以产生不同物种观察到的多样性要求。许多通过开花时间突变体鉴定的基因被发现编码一般的发育和基因调节剂，其靶标具有特定的开花功能。对开花自然变异的研究在鉴定作为适应和驯化网络中心的节点的基因方面更为成功。现在人们关注的是对开花时间基因功能的机制分析，以及在适应过程中基因功能是如何变化的。这将为抗气候作物的培育策略提供信息，并有助于确定哪些基因在许多其他物种中作为关键的开花节点发挥作用。
