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Abstract

Plants normally flower in response to seasonal cues, such as day-length and temperature. "Arabidopsis thaliana" has a broad range of habitat in the Northern hemisphere, and extensive flowering-time variation has been observed among natural populations. "FRIGIDA" and "FLC" genes have been shown to act as major determinants controlling flowering-time variation. The large effect of the epistatic "FRIGIDA-FLC" module suggests that potentially significant other genetic variation could be easily overlooked. To gain a clue of potentially hidden genetic variation, we have combined a sequence-based reverse quantitative genetic approach and a QTL mapping-based forward quantitative genetic approach. We will present the functional analysis of natural variation on flowering-time gene "CONSTANS", which we expect to have significant effects after exposure to vernalization, which reduces the action of the "FRIGIDA-FLC" induced flowering delay.