Finally the key of flowering!

2007/05/04 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Biokimika
• Biologia
• Botanika

It seems the echo of a news that had spread to the four winds: they have found the key of the flowering mechanism, called florigene. With this term, leaf to shoot connection was called, which produces flowering.

After years of searching, researchers from the University of Agrarian Sciences of Sweden proposed the discovery of florigene in 2005. They said it was the RNA of the FT gene. But with the data published in the article there has been a certain salsa, since one of the authors has accused the other of hiding certain data.

And even without resolving the debate, two other studies have been published that show that the true florigene is not RNA, but a protein of the same gene. In one of his investigations they have worked with the flower of Arabidopsis thaliana (that of the photo) and in the other with that of rice.

Photo: P. P. Busselen, Catholic University of Louvain.