Ove Nilsson et al. "CO/FT regulatory module controls timing of flowering and seasonal growth cessation in trees," Science, 312:1040-3, 2006. (Cited in 58 papers).
While trying to speed up breeding in flowering trees, Ove Nilsson's group from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences discovered the same genes regulating flowering in annual plants - CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) - playing a similar role in aspen trees, by regulating growth and dormancy. Differences in the perennial seasonal transition between aspen trees originating from Northern and Southern hemispheres in Northern Europe could be explained by the phase of CO expression in daylight.
Researchers long knew trees from different geographical regions entered dormancy in response to different day lengths, but is was not clear how, says Antje Rohde, a plant geneticist from the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research in Belgium, who was not involved in the study. The genes regulating ...
