Plants measure day or night lengths to coordinate specific developmental changes with a favorable season. In rice (Oryza sativa), the reproductive phase is initiated by exposure to short days when expression of HEADING DATE 3a (Hd3a) and RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 (RFT1) is induced in leaves. The cognate proteins are components of the florigenic signal and move systemically through the phloem to reach the shoot apical meristem (SAM). In the SAM, they form a transcriptional activation complex with the bZIP transcription factor OsFD1 to start panicle development. Here, we show that Hd3a and RFT1 can form transcriptional activation or repression complexes also in leaves and feed back to regulate their own transcription. Activation complexes depend on OsFD1 to promote flowering. However, additional bZIPs, including Hd3a BINDING REPRESSOR FACTOR1 (HBF1) and HBF2, form repressor complexes that reduce Hd3a and RFT1 expression to delay flowering. We propose that Hd3a and RFT1 are also active locally in leaves to fine-tune photoperiodic flowering responses.

Flowering is the result of the coordination between genetic information and environmental cues. Gene regulatory networks have evolved in plants in order to measure diurnal and seasonal variation of day length (or photoperiod), thus aligning the reproductive phase with the most favorable season of the year. The capacity of plants to discriminate distinct photoperiods classifies them into long and short day species, depending on the conditions that induce flowering. Plants of tropical origin and adapted to short day lengths include rice, maize, and sorghum, whereas wheat and barley were originally domesticated in the Fertile Crescent and are considered long day species. In these and other crops, day length measurement mechanisms have been artificially modified during domestication and breeding to adapt plants to novel areas, to the extent that a wide diversity of responses exists within any given species. Notwithstanding the ample natural and artificial variation of day length responses, some of the basic molecular elements governing photoperiodic flowering are widely conserved. However, as our understanding of the underlying mechanisms improves, it becomes evident that specific regulators exist in many lineages that are not shared by others, while apparently conserved components can be recruited to novel functions during evolution.

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In rice, the florigens Heading Date 3a (Hd3a) and Rice Flowering Locus T 1 (RFT1), OsFDlike basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors, and Gf14 proteins assemble into florigen activation/repressor complexes (FACs/FRCs), which regulate transition to flowering in leaves and apical meristem. Only OsFD1 has been described as part of complexes promoting flowering at the meristem, and little is known about the role of other bZIP transcription factors, the combinatorial complexity of FAC formation, and their DNA-binding properties. Here, we used mutant analysis, protein-protein interaction assays and DNA affinity purification (DAP) sequencing coupled to in silico prediction of binding syntaxes to study several bZIP proteins that assemble into FACs or FRCs. We identified OsFD4 as a component of a FAC promoting flowering at the shoot apical meristem, downstream of OsFD1. The osfd4 mutants are late flowering and delay expression of genes promoting inflorescence development. Protein-protein interactions indicate an extensive network of contacts between several bZIPs and Gf14 proteins. Finally, we identified genomic regions bound by bZIPs with promotive and repressive effects on flowering. We conclude that distinct bZIPs orchestrate floral induction at the meristem and that FAC formation is largely combinatorial. While binding to the same consensus motif, their DNAbinding syntax is different, suggesting discriminatory functions.

The APETALA2 (AP2) transcription factor regulates flower development, floral transition and shoot apical meristem (SAM) maintenance in Arabidopsis. AP2 is also regulated at the post-transcriptional level by microRNA172 (miR172), but the contribution of this to SAM maintenance is poorly understood.We generated transgenic plants carrying a form of AP2 that is resistant to miR172 (rAP2) or carrying a wild-type AP2 susceptible to miR172. Phenotypic and genetic analyses were performed on these lines and mir172 mutants to study the role of AP2 regulation by miR172 on meristem size and the rate of flower production.We found that rAP2 enlarges the inflorescence meristem by increasing cell size and cell number. Misexpression of rAP2 from heterologous promoters showed that AP2 acts in the central zone (CZ) and organizing center (OC) to increase SAM size. Furthermore, we found that AP2 is negatively regulated by AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 3 (ARF3). However, genetic analyses indicated that ARF3 also influences SAM size and flower production rate independently of AP2.The study identifies miR172/AP2 as a regulatory module controlling inflorescence meristem size and suggests that transcriptional regulation of AP2 by ARF3 fine-tunes SAM size determination.