SPP 1530:  Flowering Time Control: From Natural Variation to Crop Improvement

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
• Term: from 2011 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 172418080

During evolution plants have coordinated the seasonal timing of flowering and reproduction with the prevailing environmental conditions. With the onset of flowering plants undergo the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive development. In agriculture, flowering is a prerequisite for crop production whenever seeds or fruits are harvested. In contrast, avoidance of flowering is necessary for harvesting vegetative parts of a plant. Late flowering also severely hampers breeding success due to long generation times.
Thus, FTi (flowering time) regulation is of utmost importance for genetic improvement of crops. There are many new challenges for plant geneticists and breeders in the future (e.g. changing climate, need for higher yields, demand for vegetative biomass for bioenergy production), requiring novel approaches for altering the phenological development of a plant species beyond the currently available genetic variation.
Changes in the expression of a single FTi regulator can suffice to drastically alter FTi. Exploiting the molecular fundament of FTi control offers new perspectives for knowledge-based breeding. Pleiotropic effects of FTi gene regulation beyond flowering time, such as yield parameters/hybrid yield were most recently demonstrated. This emerging field of research offers new possibilities for gaining insight into the very foundations of yield potential in crop plants.
The Priority Programme aims to develop a functional cross-species network of FTi regulators for modelling developmental and associated (e.g. yield) characters in relation to environmental cues. Plant species with different phenological development will be investigated. Phylogenetic similarities can be used to infer similar functional interactions between FTi regulators in related crop species. Comparative analysis of FTi regulation among and between closely and remotely related species will identify distinct evolutionary paths towards optimisation of FTi in a diverse set of species and the branching points of divergence.
Projects in this Priority Programme focus on genomic approaches to gain a comprehensive understanding of FTi regulation also in crops, which thus far have not been a major target of research. Another focus is on non-genetic cues regulating FTi and hormonal constitution and nutrient supply.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Sweden, USA

Projects

• A final step of speciation? - Changes in flowering time and their genetic and ecological background within three closely related diploid Hordeum species from Patagonia (Applicant Blattner, Frank R. )
• Allele mining in wild barley: finding new exotic genes which control flowering time in the barley nested association mapping (NAM) population HEB-25. (Applicants Kumlehn, Jochen ;  Pillen, Klaus )
• Analysis of genetic variation for flowering time in wild barley grown under different environmental conditions (Applicants von Korff Schmising, Maria ;  Neumann, Kerstin )
• Central data analysis platform for the SPP-1530 consortium (Applicant Große, Ivo )
• Comparative analysis of miRNA networks regulating flowering (Applicant Weigel, Ph.D., Detlef )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Jung, Christian )
• Coordination of the Priority Program (Applicant Jung, Christian )
• Determination of the relationship between allelic constitution and the flowering time phenotype in grapevine (Applicants Töpfer, Reinhard ;  Weigel, Ph.D., Detlef ;  Weisshaar, Bernd )
• Development and implementation of advanced methods for the identification of barley flowering time genes using next generation sequencing (Applicants von Korff Schmising, Maria ;  Schneeberger, Korbinian )
• Development of an early flowering system for poplar breeding and biosafety research (Applicant Fladung, Matthias )
• Directing floral timing through genetic variation in the plant circadian clock (Applicant Davis, Seth J. )
• Evolutionary Transcriptomics of Floral Transition (Applicants Große, Ivo ;  Quint, Marcel ;  Weisshaar, Bernd )
• Flowering time, miRNA regulation and climatic adaptation: Variation in Brassica napus idiotypes under drought stress (Applicant Snowdon, Rod )
• Genetic and molecular analysis of epistatic interactions in flowering time pathways identified in a barley multi-parent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) population (Applicants Ballvora, Agim ;  Léon, Jens )
• Genetic Dissection of Flowering Time in Wheat by High-density Genome-wide Association Mapping (Applicant Würschum, Tobias )
• Genomic dissection of floral transition in Brassica napus towards crop improvement by life cycle adaptation and hybrid yield increase (Applicant Jung, Christian )
• Identification and molecular characterisation of genes involved in the perennial life cycle (Applicant Albani, Maria )
• Is the immune system required to adapt to flowering time change? (Applicant de Meaux, Juliette )
• Mechanistic analysis of the transition from juvenility to maturity in perennial Arabis alpina and comparison with Brassica crop species (Applicant Coupland, Ph.D., George )
• Metabolite regulation of cryptochrome 2 activity and flowering time (Applicant Batschauer, Alfred )
• Quantitative effects of vernalization requirement, day length and temperature on flowering time of oilseed rape (Applicant Möllers, Christian )
• Regulation of Flowering Time by Trehalose-6-Phoshate Signaling (Applicants Schmid, Markus ;  Wahl, Vanessa )
• StPCP1: an IDD transcription factor involved in sugar-induced flowering and tuberization in Solanum tuberosum (Applicants Kühn, Christina ;  Wahl, Vanessa )
• Temperature-dependent control of flowering by the gibberellin pathway and interactions between DELLA proteins and APETALA1/VRN1 MADS-box factors. (Applicant Schwechheimer, Claus )
• The function of cytokinin in regulating flowering time (Applicant Schmülling, Thomas )
• Unraveling a mechanism for floral transition control in annual, biennial, and perennial Beta species (Applicant Tränkner, Conny )
• Unravelling a genetic network for bolting time regulation in Beta species to breed winter sugar beet (Applicant Jung, Christian )
• Unravelling the role of an autonomous pathway component in FTi control in Arabidopsis and barley (Applicant Staiger, Dorothee )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christian Jung