Scientific publications

Flowering initiation in plants is regulated by complex gene networks which integrate multiple environmental and endogenous signals to ensure that flowering occurs at the appropriate time. This is achieved by precisely controlling the expression of key flowering genesat both the transcriptional and post transcriptional levels. In recent years, a class of small non-coding RNAs, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), has been shown to regulate gene expression in a number of plant developmental processes. In A. thaliana, the transition to flowering is controlled by multiple genetic pathways. These include the plant-autonomous pathway, the photoperiodic pathway, the vernalization pathway, and the gibberellic acid pathway. This results in a regulatory network that aligns the endogenous developmental state of the plant with environmental signals. This review presents the mechanisms through which flowering gene expression is regulated by plant miRNAs involved in different genetic pathways, their mode of action, and their multiple regulatory functions. The roles of the miR156, miR172, miR159/319, miR390, and miR394 families in the flowering time regulatory network of A. thaliana are discussed in detail.