Photoperiod control of plant growth: Flowering time genes beyond flowering

Fluctuations in environmental conditions greatly influence life on earth. Plants, as sessile organisms, have developed molecular mechanisms to adapt their development to changes in daylength, or photoperiod. One of the first plant features that comes to mind as affected by the duration of the day is flowering time; we all bring up a clear image of spring blossom. However, for many plants flowering happens at other times of the year, and many other developmental aspects are also affected by changes in daylength, which range from hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis thaliana to tuberization in potato or autumn growth cessation in trees. Strikingly, many of the processes affected by photoperiod employ similar gene networks to respond to changes in the length of light/dark cycles. In this review, we have focused on developmental processes affected by photoperiod that share similar genes and gene regulatory networks.

We thank our funders: Grant PGC2018-095804-B-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe,” by the “European Union,” and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 718 to SP. Grant FJCI-2017-32273 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to IC. Grant BES-2017-080626 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future” to UC, and Grant LCF/BQ/DI18/11660020, which received funding from the EU-H2020 through MSCA Grant 713673 from the INPhINIT programme of La Caixa Foundation to PN. UC and PN performed this work within the frame of a Program of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation-State Research Agency (AEI), through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” SEV-2015-0533 and CEX2019-000902-S.

Peer reviewed