Mechanistic and evolutionary analysis of the natural variation in Arabidopsis vernalization response

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A full understanding of how climate change will influence plants requires an understanding of how mechanisms used to monitor environmental cues have changed as plants have adapted to different habitats. Regulation of flowering in many plants in temperate and arctic environments includes a requirement for a period of exposure to cold, known as vernalization. In this proposal we want to fully characterize the molecular basis of natural variation in vernalization. A major regulator of this process is FLC, a floral repressor. The gene encoding FLC needs to be silenced for flowering to proceed and the speed this happens differs in Arabidopsis collected from different habitats. We will analyse FLC regulation and how it has evolved in response to adaptation to different climates. 'Mix-and-match' versions of FLC genes from the different natural variants will be analysed in transgenic plants to uncover which of the different nucleotide changes contributes to the altered vernalization response. In collaboration with Dr Magnus Nordborg, a population geneticist, we will then analyse FLC in a worldwide set of Arabidopsis accessions and relate sequence variation to vernalization response. We will also undertake experiments analysing the fitness benefits of this variation and compare these data to field-derived phenotypic data generated in two parallel studies. This will reveal whether variation in vernalization is important for adaptation.