THE PLANT CELL, Vol 6, Issue 1 75-83, Copyright © 1994 by American Society of Plant Biologists
Isolation of LUMINIDEPENDENS: A Gene Involved in the Control of Flowering Time in Arabidopsis
I. Lee, M. J. Aukerman, S. L. Gore, K. N. Lohman, S. D. Michaels, L. M. Weaver, M. C. John, K. A. Feldmann and R. M. Amasino
Department of Biochemistry, 420 Henry Mall, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1569
Plants have evolved the ability to regulate flowering in response to
environmental signals such as temperature and photoperiod. The physiology
and genetics of floral induction have been studied extensively, but the
molecular mechanisms that underlie this process are poorly understood. To
study this process, we isolated a gene, LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD), that is
involved in the timing of flowering in Arabidopsis. Mutations in this gene
render Arabidopsis late flowering and appear to affect light perception.
The late-flowering phenotype of the ld mutation was partially suppressed by
vernalization. Genomic and cDNA clones of the LD gene were characterized.
The predicted amino acid sequence of the LD protein contains 953 residues
and includes two putative bipartite nuclear localization signals and a
glutamine-rich region.
