With a warming climate and the usage of monocultures in food production it is possible we may face more issues concerning food insecurity in the future as pollinators struggle to find food in agricultural landscapes. Therefore, it is of value to know whether common agricultural weeds are important sources of food for pollinators. Pollinators are vital in the growing of food-crops and may depend on different agricultural weeds during their flying season. This study is based on observational citizen science data on the flowering of 24 agricultural weeds classified as useful to pollinators in the years 2008-2022. Data on first flowering and length of flowering was compared between life history classifications based on life span and time of germination. The results showed that while there is variation both between groups and within groups among the selected species, summer annuals are among the last to start flowering. Species classed as “summer and winter annuals”, i.e that can germinate either in spring or autumn, had a longer flowering period than the other classes. Winter annuals were first to flower while the perennials and “summer and winter annuals” differed more among each other. Weather dependency was also addressed by comparison over years. Overall, the selected species were not significantly affected by mean winter temperature, mean summer temperature or mean summer precipitation.

Effects of exogenously applied GA₄₊₇ on floral and vegetative development of <u>Streptocarpus x hybridus</u> were investigated. <u>S. x hybridus</u> 'Hybrid Delta' petiolode tissue from plants treated with 25 μg GA₄₊₇ were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Plants treated at 1 cm leaf lengths appeared unaffected by GA₄₊₇ one week after treatment while 2 and 3 cm GA-treated samples showed enhanced floral initiation. / Master of Science

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

Vernalization is defined as the response to prolonged cold exposure required for acquiring the molecular competence necessary to undergo floral transition. FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a potent floral repressor in Arabidopsis, is highly expressed before vernalizing cold treatment but is repressed during prolonged vernalization. VERNALIZATION INSENSITIVE 3 (VIN3) is a Plant HomeoDomein (PHD)- containing protein that is required for establishing vernalization-mediated repression of FLC. The induction of VIN3 is one of the earliest molecular events in vernalization response and its expression is intimately linked to prolonged cold exposure. However, mechanisms underlying VIN3 induction remain poorly understood. The constitutive repression of VIN3 in the absence of cold is due to multiple repressive components, including a transposable element-derived sequence, LIKE-HETEROCHROMA TIN PROTEIN 1 (LHP1), and POLYCOMB REPRESSION COMPLEX 2 (PRC2). Furthermore, the full extent of VIN3 induction by vernalization requires activating complex components, including EARLY FLOWERING 7 (ELF7) and EARLY FLOWERING IN SHORT DAYS (EFS). Dynamic changes in the histone modifications present at VIN3 chromatin during vernalization were also observed, indicating that chromatin changes play a critical role in regulating VIN3 induction. However, VIN3 induction by vernalization still occurs in the absence of activation complexes and de- repression of VIN3 in the absence of the repressive complexes is not sufficient for achieving complete induction. Thus, unknown cold-influenced regulators responsible for achieving maximum VIN3 induction during vernalization must exist. Therefore, forward genetic screening was undertaken to elucidate upstream regulators of VIN3. Molecular characterization of T-DNA mutant populations elucidated two interesting mutants: a mutant that ectopically expressed VIN3 before cold (ectopic VIN3 induction, evi1) and mutants that failed to induce VIN3 during vernalization (defects in VIN3 induction, dvi1). FLC is over-expressed in dvi1 despite its failure to induce VIN3 expression during vernalization, suggesting that this mutant may regulate both VIN3 and FLC. In evi1, FLC is hyper-repressed after 40 days of vernalization, leading to an acceleration of flowering time. These results indicate that regulators of VIN3 in the vernalization pathway exist and that these regulators may use different mechanisms in order to influence VIN3 expression. / text

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We studied how the endogenous and exogenous cytokinin and gibberellin functions in floral initiation and development in tuberose. In the aspect of cytokinins. The contents of endogenous cytokinin in tuberose corms (Polianthes tuberosa L. cv. Double) at vegetative, early floral initiation, and flower development stages were investigated. We also determined the influence of exogenous cytokinin treatment on the corm apex at three different growth stages in relation to floral initiation and development in tuberose. The exogenous cytokinin effectively induced floral initiation and development, especially at the early floral initiation and flower development stages. Endogenous cytokinins were higher in early floral initiation and development stages in comparison to the vegetative stage. During floral initiation stage, the zeatin and dihydrozeatin increased significantly, while the cytokinins, zeatin riboside, dihydrozeatin riboside, 6N-(£_2-isopentenyl) adenine, and 6N-(£_2-isope -ntenyl) adenine riboside at consistently low levels. The increase of cytokinin levels in tuberose corms during floral induction suggests a role for cytokinins in tuberose apex evocation. Moreover, these results indicate that cytokinins seem to promote the development of flower buds rather than inducing flowering in tuberose. Endogenous gibberellins (GAs) in tuberose corms were isolated using high performance liquid chromatography, bioassay and identified by combined capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrumetry. Gibber -ellins A19, A20 and A53 were quantified at the vegetative, early floral initiation and flower differentiation stages. The identification of these 13-hydroxylated GAs indicates the presence of the early-13-hydroxy -lation in tuberose corms. An increase in GA20 and decrease in GA19 coincided with the transition from the vegetative phase to the stages of early floral initiation and flower differentiation. GA53 maintained at constant levels at three different growth stages. When GA3, GA4, GA20 and GA32 were applied to corms at vegetative stage (plants about 5 cm in height ), floral initiation was induced and/or promoted by several, most notably by GA3, GA20 and GA32. It is suggest that hydroxylated C-19 GAs play an important role in flower induction in tuberose.

In plants, flowering time is a tightly regulated process where several environmental and endogenous cues fine-tune the time of flowering. In Arabidopsis, four major genetic pathways regulate flowering time, namely photoperiod, vernalization, autonomous, and phytohormone gibberellic acid (GA) pathways. Arabidopsis is a facultative long day (LD) plant. LD promotes flowering whereas flowering is delayed in short day (SD) conditions. Here, we identified a basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor called bHLH93 that is necessary to promote flowering only in SD. Also, photoperiod plays more critical roles in regulation of flowering time of bhlh93 mutant compared to GA and vernalization pathways. Thus, bHLH93 might represent a novel transcription factor absolutely required for Arabidopsis thaliana to evolve as a facultative LD plant. bhlh93 mutants also show severe adult phenotype such as shorter stature, curly and darker green leaves, and reduced fertility compared to wild type plants. These results suggest that bHLH93 controls plant stature, fertility and chlorophyll content in Arabidopsis. bHLH93 is expressed in a tissue-specific and developmental stage-dependent manner. bHLH93-YFP protein is localized in the nucleus. bHLH93 homodimerizes in yeast, and it has strong transcription activation activity in yeast. These data suggest that, like other bHLH proteins, bHLH93 may function as a transcriptional regulator in the nucleus controlling gene expression. We have identified floral repressor MAF5 as a major target of bHLH93 to promote flowering in SD. bHLH93 binds to MAF5 promoter element in vivo and in vitro. Other than MAF5, FLC and MAF1-2 are also up-regulated in bhlh93 but at a lower level than MAF5. The activation of multiple floral repressors correlates with bhlh93 flowering phenotype. Taken together, these data suggest that bHLH93 may provide selective advantage for evolution of facultative flowering behavior under varying environmental conditions for reproductive success. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Botany / Master / Master of Philosophy