Dear Editor,

Rosaceae plants provide some of the most important fruits and flowers, like apple, peach, pear, strawberry, and rose. Understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms that underlie the regulation of flowering time, i.e. the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, is therefore essential for securing flower and fruit productivity. At least five pathways that regulate flowering in model plants have been well characterized. Although components in the flowering pathways may differ among species, most endogenous and exogenous cues are integrated into several key and conserved hubs, including the florigen that is encoded by FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). Expressed in vasculature cells and transported to shoot apical meristems, FT interacts with the bZIP transcription factor FD and a scaffold protein 14-3-3 to form a florigen protein complex that induces the expression of inflorescence and floral meristem genes. Because of its pivotal roles in flowering time control and other developmental processes, the regulation of FT expression occurs at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and translational levels [1]. Gene copy-number variation via random/tandem duplication or whole genome duplication (WGD) accompanied by functional diversification provides another regulatory layer for FT function, and duplication of FT-like genes correlates tightly with crop domestication in rice, maize, and soybean [2–4]. However, this has not been investigated systematically in Rosaceae.

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