FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) is a conserved promoter of flowering that acts downstream of various regulatory pathways, including one that mediates photoperiodic induction through CONSTANS (CO), and is expressed in the vasculature of cotyledons and leaves. A bZIP transcription factor, FD, preferentially expressed in the shoot apex is required for FT to promote flowering. FD and FT are interdependent partners through protein interaction and act at the shoot apex to promote floral transition and to initiate floral development through transcriptional activation of a floral meristem identity gene, APETALA1 (AP1). FT may represent a long-distance signal in flowering.

Normal coordinate calculations are carried out for all the in-plane modes of octaethylporphyrinato-Ni (II) and its meso-deuterated and 15N substituted derivatives. With 37 constants of a modified Urey–Bradley force field and a structural model with D4h symmetry, 59 resonance Raman lines (A1g+B1g +A2g+B2g) and 38 infrared bands (Eu) of these three molecules are assigned. The vibrational modes of the Raman active species are represented in terms of the Cartesian atomic displacement vectors. Based on the present results, some important resonance Raman lines of hemoproteins are interpreted. The so-called ’’oxidation state maker’’ (Band IV) is due to an in-phase breathing-like mode of four pyrrole rings although being somewhat deformed by the large contribution of the Cα–N symmetric stretching term. The spin state sensitive Raman lines, namely, Band I and III, are associated mainly with methine bridge (Cα–Cm) stretching modes. Two prominent anomalously-polarized Raman lines of hemoproteins around 1580 and 1300 cm−1 are primarily due to the Cα–Cm stretching and Cm–H bending modes, respectively.

In Arabidopsis, several genetic pathways controlling the floral transition (flowering) are integrated at the transcriptional regulation of FT, LFY and SOC1. TSF is the closest homolog of FT in Arabidopsis. TSF expression was induced rapidly upon activation of CONSTANS (CO). The mRNA levels of TSF and FT showed similar patterns of diurnal oscillation and response to photoperiods: an evening peak, higher levels in long day (LD) than in short day (SD) conditions, and immediate up-regulation upon day-length extension. These observations suggest that TSF is a direct regulatory target of CO. tsf mutation delayed flowering in SD conditions and enhanced the phenotype of ft in both LD and SD conditions. TSF and FT also shared similar modes of regulation by FLC, an integrator of autonomous and vernalization pathways, and other factors such as EBS and PHYB. Consistently, TSF overexpression caused a precocious flowering phenotype independent of photoperiods or CO, or FLC. These observations suggest that TSF is a new member of the floral pathway integrators and promotes flowering largely redundantly with FT but makes a distinct contribution in SD conditions. TSF and FT seem to act independently of each other and of LFY, and partially upstream of SOC1. Interestingly, the expression patterns of TSF and FT in seedlings did not overlap, although both were expressed in the phloem tissues. Our work revealed additional complexity and spatial aspects of the regulatory network at the pathway integration level. We propose that the phloem is the site where multiple regulatory pathways are integrated at the transcriptional regulation of FT and TSF.

the L1-specific gene expression (Abe et al., 2001). The L1 box is well-conserved within the promoter regions of all L1-specific