Plants Balance Nutrients and Timing to Decide When to Flower
Researchers have identified how plants coordinate carbon and nitrogen availability to control flowering time through a master regulatory gene. The finding reveals a previously unknown mechanism that could help breeders develop crops better adapted to variable soil conditions and changing climates—a critical consideration as food security pressures mount globally.
Originaltitel: Carbon and nitrogen signaling regulate <em>FLOWERING LOCUS C </em>and impact flowering time in Arabidopsis
<p>The timing of flowering in plants is modulated by both carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) signaling pathways. In a previous study, we established a pivotal role of the sucrose-signaling trehalose 6-phosphate pathway in regulating flowering under N-limited short-day conditions. In this work, we show that both wild-type Arabidopsis (<em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em>) plants grown under N-limited conditions and knock-down plants of <em>TREHALOSE PHOSPHATE SYNTHASE 1</em> induce <em>FLOWERING LOCUS C</em> (<em>FLC</em>) expression, a well-known floral repressor associated with vernalization. When exposed to an extended period of cold, a<em> flc </em>mutant fails to respond to N availability and flowers at the same time under N-limited and full-nutrition conditions. Our data suggest that SUCROSE NON-FERMENTING 1 RELATED KINASE 1-dependent trehalose 6-phosphate-mediated C signaling and a mechanism downstream of N signaling (likely involving NIN-LIKE PROTEIN 7) impact the expression of <em>FLC</em>. Collectively, our data underscore the existence of a multi-factor regulatory system in which the C and N signaling pathways jointly govern the regulation of flowering in plants.</p>