9706552 Sussman Plants contain an unknown compound that travels from the leaves to meristems and initiates flowering. The chemical nature of this so-called florigen has not been found, although the topic is around for more than 50 years. Indications are that it may be a peptide. As outlined by Dr. Sussman, he has a population of Arabidopsis which contain a marker protein expressed under control of an "early-flowering" promoter and he seems to be able to look in a titerplate assay for peptides fro a combinatorial peptide library for the one that induces this promoter. It is a dangerous experiment, but the rewards can be tremendous - both from a basic science viewpoint (there is only one other peptide "hormone" identified in plants), and from an application standpoint. Spray a peptide and induce flowering in the field simultaneously and earlier than nature would do it.
