Like most annuals, lettuce¹ plants live out their lives in quiet, three-act dramas that follow the seasons. Seed dormancy² gives way to germination³; the young plant emerges and grows; and finally in the climax⁴ of flowering, a new generation of seeds is produced. It's remarkably⁶ predictable, but the genetics that coordinates⁸ these changes with environmental cues has not been well understood. In a recent study of lettuce and the model plant Arabidopsis, researchers at the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center and in China show for the first time that a gene⁵ known to direct the depth of seed dormancy and the timing⁹ of germination also influences flowering. The study further suggests that the gene does this by influencing production of certain microRNAs -- tiny snippets of genetic⁷ material that govern transition from one phase of the plant's life cycle to another.

 

The findings, which have important implications for the $1.9 billion annual U.S. lettuce crop, will be reported during the week of March 28 in the Proceedings¹⁰ of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

"It appears that the 'Delay of Germination 1,' or DOG1, gene is an environmental sensor¹¹, detecting environmental changes and enabling the plant to not only keep the seed dormant¹² but to also delay flowering," said study co-author Kent Bradford, a plant scientist and director of the Seed Biotechnology Center.

 

"This gene could be a particularly valuable tool as climate change shifts our growing seasons and we are forced to develop plants that can adapt to those environmental changes," Bradford said.

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