%0 Journal Article %T Control of Flowering %A C L Bishop %J Genome Biology %D 2003 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/gb-spotlight-20030422-03 %X Hiyama et al. generated transgenic rice that overexpress OsGI under both SD and LD conditions. These mutants flower later than wild-type plants, suggesting that in rice OsGI is a suppressor of flowering, in contrast to the situation in A. thaliana. Comparison of mRNA levels of the downstream targets of OsGI - Hd1 and Hd3a - showed no differences in Hd1 mRNA levels relative to wild-type, regardless of growth conditions. In wild-type plants Hd3a expression is inhibited under LD conditions, and has diurnal levels under SD conditions. No Hd3a mRNA could be detected in the OsGI transgenics, however, consistent with the late-flowering phenotype. The authors suggest that under LD conditions Hd1 expression suppresses expression of Hd3a in rice.Thus, in A. thaliana, under LD conditions GI activates FT via CO, but in rice OsGI activates Hd1 (the CO ortholog), which under LD conditions suppresses Hd3a (the FT ortholog) expression - resulting in suppression of flowering.The authors conclude that "an important gene network for the photoperiod control of flowering is conserved between Arabidopsis and rice, but that the regulation of the downstream gene by an upstream regulatory gene is reversed in the two species. These findings suggest the existence of common mechanisms for the photoperiodic control of various processes in diverse plant species." %U http://genomebiology.com/2003/4/4/spotlight-20030422-03