Abstract
Floral pathways are integrated at the transcriptional regulation of floral pathway integrators including FT. Arabidopsis has six homologous genes of FT, which include TSF with the highest homology to FT, and FT-antagonist of TFL1. Although certain aspects of expression and overexpression phenotype have been described, the function of TSF remains unknown.
We compared expression patterns of TSF and FT in detail. First, diurnal oscillation of mRNA levels in plants grown in long day or short day was examined. Subsequently, developmental regulation of expression was examined with RNA samples at a fixed zeitgeber time on variant dates from germination to maturation. Regulation of TSF expression by flowering time genes, especially CO, was analyzed. The results obtained from these analyses suggest that transcription of TSF is regulated in a similar manner with FT. Phenotype of a T-DNA insertion line with decreased TSF mRNA levels is also being examined.
