| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Life Sciences, University of Liège, B-4000, B22, Sart Tilman, Liège, Belgium;(2) Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Institute for Plant Sciences, Universitätstr. 2, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland;(3) PLANTA GmbH, Grimsehlstrasse 31, D-37555 Einbeck, Germany;(4) Present address: Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne, Gyrhofstrasse 17, D-50923 Köln, Germany;(5) Present address: Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl-von-Linné Weg 10, D-50829 Köln, Germany;(6) Present address: Institute of Physiology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland;(7) Present address: Department of Plant Systems Biology, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium |
| Abstract: | Floral induction is a key developmental switch in plants that leads to the production of flowers, fruits and seeds, which are of paramount importance for human life. To meet the demands of several crop harvests per year, or the growth of crop plants in regions with short vegetation times and for the production of ornamental plants, the timing of the floral transition is very important. The discovery of genes that are involved in flowering time control in model plants should allow the modulation of this developmental switch also in plants with economic value. By using a transgenic approach, we showed that a single MADS box gene accelerated flowering and seed ripening in summer rape plants. The MADSB transgene also partially substituted for the strict temperature requirements for flowering in winter rape plants. Transgenic winter rape plants expressing the MADSB transgene also produced more rigid siliques than wild type winter rape plants, and this prevented precocious seed dispersal. |
