Photoperiodic floral induction has had a significant impact on the agricultural and horticultural industries. Changes in day length are perceived in leaves, which synthesize systemic flowering inducers (florigens) and inhibitors (antiflorigens) that determine floral initiation at the shoot apex. Recently, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) was found to be a florigen; however, the identity of the corresponding antiflorigen remains to be elucidated. Here, we report the identification of an antiflorigen gene, Anti-florigenic FT/TFL1 family protein (AFT), from a wild chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum seticuspe) whose expression is mainly induced in leaves under noninductive conditions. Gain-and loss-of-function analyses demonstrated that CsAFT acts systemically to inhibit flowering and plays a predominant role in the obligate photoperiodic response. A transient gene expression assay indicated that CsAFT inhibits flowering by directly antagonizing the flower-inductive activity of CsFTL3, a C. seticuspe ortholog of FT, through interaction with CsFDL1, a basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor FD homolog of Arabidopsis. Induction of CsAFT was triggered by the coincidence of phytochrome signals with the photosensitive phase set by the dusk signal; flowering occurred only when night length exceeded the photosensitive phase for CsAFT induction. Thus, the gated antiflorigen production system, a phytochrome-mediated response to light, determines obligate photoperiodic flowering response in chrysanthemums, which enables their year-round commercial production by artificial lighting. T he transition from the vegetative to the reproductive phase is one of the most important developmental stages in the plant life cycle. The timing of flowering during the year, which is an important adaptive trait that strongly influences reproductive fitness, is affected by both endogenous and environmental factors. Changes in day length (photoperiod) are among the most important and reliable seasonal signals to plants to reproduce at favorable times of the year. In 1920, Garner and Allard (1) demonstrated that several plant species flower in response to changes in day length and described this phenomenon as "photoperiodism." Plants are classified according to their photoperiodic responses as short-day plants (SDP), in which flowering occurs when the night length is longer than a critical minimum, long-day plants (LDP), in which flowering occurs when the day becomes longer than some crucial length, and day-neutral plants.Within the SDP and LDP, there are obligate (qualitative) and facultative (quantitative) types of photoperiodic responses. Obligate-type plants are those in which a particular photoperiod is an absolute requirement for the occurrence of a response. Chrysanthemum has become one of the most important horticultural crops since the discovery of photoperiodism because the flowering time of this obligate SDP can be strictly controlled by the use of blackouts or artificial lighting, day-length extension, or illumination during the middle of the...

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Cultivated chrysanthemum ( Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) is one of the most economically important ornamental crops grown worldwide. It has a complex hexaploid genome (2 n = 6 x = 54) and large genome size. The diploid Chrysanthemum seticuspe is often used as a model of cultivated chrysanthemum, since the two species are closely related. To expand our knowledge of the cultivated chrysanthemum, we here performed de novo whole-genome assembly in C. seticuspe using the Illumina sequencing platform. XMRS10, a C. seticuspe accession developed by five generations of self-crossing from a self-compatible strain, AEV2, was used for genome sequencing. The 2.72 Gb of assembled sequences (CSE_r1.0), consisting of 354,212 scaffolds, covered 89.0% of the 3.06 Gb C. seticuspe genome estimated by k-mer analysis. The N50 length of scaffolds was 44,741 bp. For protein-encoding genes, 71,057 annotated genes were deduced (CSE_r1.1_cds). Next, based on the assembled genome sequences, we performed linkage map construction, gene discovery and comparative analyses for C. seticuspe and cultivated chrysanthemum. The generated C. seticuspe linkage map revealed skewed regions in segregation on the AEV2 genome. In gene discovery analysis, candidate flowering-related genes were newly found in CSE_r1.1_cds. Moreover, single nucleotide polymorphism identification and annotation on the C . × morifolium genome showed that the C. seticuspe genome was applicable to genetic analysis in cultivated chrysanthemums. The genome sequences assembled herein are expected to contribute to future chrysanthemum studies. In addition, our approach demonstrated the usefulness of short-read genome assembly and the importance of choosing an appropriate next genome sequencing technology based on the purpose of the post-genome analysis.

Flowering time of the short-day plant Chrysanthemum morifolium is largely dependent upon daylength, but it is also distinctly influenced by other environmental factors. Flowering is delayed by summer heat. Here, the underlying basis for this phenomenon was investigated. Heat-induced flowering retardation occurred similarly in C. morifolium and C. seticuspe, a wild-type diploid chrysanthemum. In both plants, this flowering retardation occurred mainly because of inhibition of capitulum development. Concurrently, expression of flowering-related genes in the shoot tip was delayed under high temperature conditions. In chrysanthemums, FLOWERING LOCUS T-like 3 (FTL3) has been identified as a floral inducer produced in the leaves after short-day stimuli and transported to the shoot tip. In C. seticuspe, heat-induced flowering retardation was accompanied by a reduction in FTL3 expression in the leaves. Two C. morifolium cultivars with flowering times that are differently affected by growth temperature were also examined. High temperature-induced FTL3 repression was observed in the leaves of both cultivars, although the degree of repression was greater in the heat-sensitive cultivar than in the heat-tolerant cultivar. When a scion of the heat-sensitive cultivar was grafted onto the stock of the heat-tolerant cultivar, flowering in the shoot tip was less sensitive to heat. Conversely, a scion of the heat-tolerant cultivar grafted onto the heat-sensitive cultivar showed increased heat sensitivity. Thus, several lines of evidence suggest that the reduction of FTL3 signalling from the leaves to the shoot tip at high temperatures is involved in flowering retardation in chrysanthemums.

This study was conducted by the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and is the first nationwide study on bacterial pathogens isolated from patients with urinary tract infections at 28 hospitals throughout Japan between January 2008 and June 2008. A total of 688 bacterial strains were isolated from adult patients with urinary tract infections. The strains investigated in this study are as follows: Enterococcus faecalis (n = 140), Escherichia coli (n = 255), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 93), Proteus mirabilis (n = 42), Serratia marcescens (n = 44), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 114). The minimum inhibitory concentrations of 39 antibacterial agents used for these strains were determined according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) manual. All Enterococcus faecalis strains were susceptible to ampicillin and vancomycin. Although a majority of the E. faecalis strains were susceptible to linezolid, 11 strains (7.8%) were found to be intermediately resistant. The proportions of fluoroquinolone-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, and S. marcescens strains were 35.7%, 29.3%, 18.3%, and 15.2%, respectively. The proportions of E. coli, P. mirabilis, K. pneumoniae, and S. marcescens strains producing extended-spectrum β-lactamase were 5.1%, 11.9%, 0%, and 0%, respectively. The proportions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains resistant to carbapenems, aminoglycosides, and fluoroquinolones were 9.2%, 4.4%, and 34.8%, respectively, and among them, 2 strains (1.8%) were found to be multidrug resistant. These data present important information for the proper treatment of urinary tract infections and will serve as a useful reference for periodic surveillance studies in the future.