Challenges in studies on flowering time: interfaces between phenological research and the molecular network of flowering genes

Flowering time is a well-studied subject in ecology, evolution and molecular biology. Long-term phenological studies have shown relationships between flowering time and environmental and endogenous factors in many species. In contrast, molecular studies using model plants have revealed a complex regulatory network of flowering. We propose that flowering would be a model trait for the integrated study of ecology, evolution and molecular biology. We introduce briefly the flowering regulatory pathways of Arabidopsis thaliana, followed by molecular techniques such as transgenic manipulation, quantitative real-time PCR and detection of differentially expressed genes that could facilitate the study of ‘nonmodel' species of ecological interest but with little available genome information. Application of the flowering gene network to wild species will be illustrated by two examples: modeling and prediction of the expression of flowering genes in Arabidopsis halleri, and the latitudinal cline of bud set and cessation in Populus. Finally, we discuss the challenges in integrating knowledge of the regulatory network on flowering into ecologically unique flowering phenomena such as synchronous intermittent mass flowering—the topic of this special issu

中・老年期日本人における心血管病死予測因子としての選択反応時間と握力 : 放射線影響研究所成人健康調査

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(医学)Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciencedoctora