Abstract

Background How plants adapt their developmental patterns to regular seasonal changes is an important question in biology. The annual growth cycle in perennial long-lived trees is yet another example of how plants can adapt to seasonal changes. The two main signals that plants rely on to respond to seasonal changes are photoperiod and temperature, and these signals have critical roles in the temporal regulation of the annual growth cycle of trees.Scope This review presents the latest findings to provide insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie how photoperiodic and temperature signals regulate seasonal growth in trees.Conclusion The results point to a high level of conservation in the signalling pathways that mediate photoperiodic control of seasonal growth in trees and flowering in annual plants such as arabidopsis. Furthermore, the data indicate that symplastic communication may mediate certain aspects of seasonal growth. Although considerable insight into the control of phenology in model plants such as poplar and spruce has been obtained, the future challenge is extending these studies to other, non-model trees.

Keywords

Hybrid aspen (Populus tremula x P. tremuloides); growth cessation; dormancy; seasonal growth; phenology; ecodormant; endodormant

Published in

Annals of Botany
2017, Volume: 120, number: 3, pages: 351-360
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS

SLU Authors

• Prakash, Jay

  • Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Bhalerao, Rishikesh P.

  • Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcx061

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/88753