GENETIC INTERACTIONS THAT PROMOTE THE FLORAL TRANSITION IN ARABIDOPSIS

The transition from vegetative to reproductive development is marked b y the establishment of the floral developmental program in the lateral primordia formed by the shoot apical meristem. This is achieved by th e coordinate activation, in these primordia, of a set of genes that re gulate floral initiation. The time of this activation is determined by a complex network of loci involved in several pathways that are depen dent or independent from environmental conditions. In Arabidopsis, the construction and characterization of double mutants is helping to und erstand the interactions between loci controlling flowering time and t he genes that are required to initiate the process of flower developme nt at the lateral primordia.