An international team of researchers discovered that the gene FT, which
controls the transition to flowering during spring, could alter the behavior
of Arabidopsis plants in natural environments. The results published in
Nature Plants have implications for the artificial growing conditions
scientists usually apply in the lab.



The researchers, led by Takato Imaizumi from the University of Washington,
reported that FT has a peak of activity in the morning, leading up to the
transition to flowering, which was not observed previously in Arabidopsis.
The morning peak of activity of FT leads the plants to transition earlier
from vegetative growth to flowering.



"Previous research on FT activity in Arabidopsis showed that there is a peak
of activity in the evening, not the morning," said Imaizumi. "We show
definitively that there is a peak of morning activity - and we think we know
why this morning peak was not seen previously in the research laboratory,"
she explained.



[www.washington.edu]