ISOLATION OF LUMINIDEPENDENS - A GENE INVOLVED IN THE CONTROL OF FLOWERING TIME IN ARABIDOPSIS

Plants have evolved the ability to regulate flowering in response to e nvironmental signals such as temperature and photoperiod. The physiolo gy and genetics of floral induction have been studied extensively, but the molecular mechanisms that underlie this process are poorly unders tood. To study this process, we isolated a gene, LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD), that is involved in the timing of flowering in Arabidopsis. Mutations in this gene render Arabidopsis late flowering and appear to affect l ight perception. The late-flowering phenotype of the Id mutation was p artially suppressed by vernalization. Genomic and cDNA clones of the L D gene were characterized. The predicted amino acid sequence of the LD protein contains 953 residues and includes two putative bipartite nuc lear localization signals and a glutamine-rich region.