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Assessing Flowering Time Under Different Photoperiods

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Environmental Responses in Plants

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2494))

Abstract

Flowering time is one of the most important developmental transitions in plants, especially in annuals such as Arabidopsis thaliana. However, flowering is also a critical agronomic trait, as it impacts the level of vegetative biomass produced (e.g., leaves) or the amount of seed (grain) generated. Therefore, uncovering flowering phenotypes would help understand the impact of any regulatory network on the overall plant life cycle, since flowering integrates multiple cues, both environmental (e.g., photoperiod, temperature) and internal (e.g., induction/repression of specific genes, phytohormone accumulation, plant age). Although the photoperiod flowering pathway has been extensively studied, and its gene circuitry characterized in great detail, specific flowering time protocols are mostly accessible to specialized laboratories in this field. In this report, we address this knowledge gap by generating a reproducible, non-expensive, and step-by-step protocol to assess flowering time under different photoperiods. We provide a comprehensive description and highlight the major pitfalls in the process. Moreover, this protocol could be expanded to include temperature changes and thus contribute to assess the impact of both environmental conditions in the plant’s decision to flower.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (CSIC-UPV), Valencia, Spain

    Jesús Praena

  2. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Elizabeth van Veen & Rossana Henriques

  3. Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Rossana Henriques

  4. Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Reyes Benlloch

Authors
  1. Jesús Praena
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  2. Elizabeth van Veen
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  3. Rossana Henriques
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  4. Reyes Benlloch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reyes Benlloch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Molecular Biology, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal

    Paula Duque

  2. Plant Molecular Biology, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal

    Dóra Szakonyi

1 Electronic Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Table 1

Data scoring as leaf number (XLSX 48 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Data scoring as days until bolting (XLSX 22 kb)

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Praena, J., van Veen, E., Henriques, R., Benlloch, R. (2022). Assessing Flowering Time Under Different Photoperiods. In: Duque, P., Szakonyi, D. (eds) Environmental Responses in Plants. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2494. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2297-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2297-1_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2296-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2297-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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