Florigen Flowering Mechanism

Florigen Flowering Mechanism. Mankind has long known that flowering, the colourful harbinger of spring, depends on the length of daylight and the conditions of temperature change.

However, we can say that the main lines of the biochemical puzzle of this process have almost been solved thanks to recent research.

Soviet-Russian Studies On Flowering

The discovery of the Florigen Flowering Mechanism actually dates back to the 1930s.

In the 1930s, scientists in Soviet Russia thought that a hormone produced in plant leaves was the main element in flower formation by sending it to the shoot tip meristem.

These cells in the leaf tips have the potential to develop into leaves or flowers. The Soviet-Russian scientists named this theoretical chemical “florigen”, which they believed initiated this timing, but which they had not yet been able to prove.

Some eighty years after the theory of florigen, experiments with Arabidopsis thaliana, also known as mouse ear cress, and rice yielded results in the search for the mysterious flower-producing chemical.

Inoculation experiments showed that the protein produced by the gene called flowering site T (FT) acts as a pioneer in flowering. When researchers grafted plants that lacked the FT gene and were therefore unable to flower onto a healthy counterpart, they found that the protein was transported to the plant with the missing gene and the flowering process began.

Similar results were found in biologically distant species. This shows that the flower-triggering function of the FT’ gene works in all flowering plants.

The FT Gene And The Biological Clock In Flowering

Some scientists then turned their attention to the biological clock mechanism that causes the FT gene to be active. FKF1, a light-receiving protein found in plants, is produced from late afternoon until late evening. During short winter days, the protein cannot be activated because there is not enough sunlight during the time it is produced.

However, as the days lengthen from winter to summer, the FKF1 protein activates the FT gene as a result of longer exposure to light.

Discovery of Florigen

When the FT gene reaches the tip of the shoot, the growth zone, it sends a message to regulatory genes such as LEAFY and Apetala1 that the days are now longer. As a result, the process of leaf production at the tips stops and dozens of genes for flower formation are activated.

Theorists suggest that plants use the proteins HDA9, PWR and AGL 19 to control the timing of flowering in the normal process.

In addition to day length, changes in ambient temperature have also been shown to be effective in initiating the flowering process. However, the molecular mechanism of these processes is not yet clearly understood.

Scientists believe that by better understanding and controlling this mechanism, methods can be developed to accelerate or delay flowering.

It is thought that this could pave the way for more efficient harvesting periods.

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