The initiation of flowering in plants is the major developmental switch in the plant life cycle. Most major crops are annual plants (plants that flower, set seed and then die), and for annuals the timing of flowering is particularly critical. This project will focus on investigating the mechanisms that control the timing of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. Arabidopsis was chosen because it has features that permit rapid progress to be made in understanding flowering at a molecular level; in particular, it is a small plant with a relatively rapid life cycle and the DNA sequence of its genome is available. These features provide a model system in which to combine genetic studies with the identification of the genes involved in flowering and the proteins they encode. This work will provide a foundation for understanding flowering-time regulation in other species such as crops. For example, premature flowering is a problem in many crops in which the leaves or roots of the plant are harvested. In other crops it is desirable to accelerate flowering. This work may provide strategies to manipulate flowering time in desirable ways. This project will also provide training in genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology for graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students.
