Knowing when to flower

The secret of flowering in our major food crops, like wheat, has been revealed with the discovery of a gene that triggers flowering in cereals.

Flowering is important because without it no grain or fruit would be produced.

The newly found gene, called WAP1, turns 'on' to activate flowering in cereals like wheat and barley, when the plant is at the right stage of development and when environmental conditions are suitable.

In winter wheat, WAP1 and flowering are activated after a cold period over winter. Spring wheat, however, flowers without exposure to cold because its version of WAP1 does not require a cold period to start it.

"Different flowering times in wheat are one of the key traits that wheat breeders have bred for since wheat breeding began," says Dr Ben Trevaskis, CSIRO Plant Industry.

"This breakthrough discovery of WAP1 means a piece of the flowering puzzle has been found. It helps us understand what breeders have been manipulating, but there is still a lot of work ahead to fully unravel the flowering process."

In the future knowledge of WAP1 could be used to help breed cereal plants that flower when needed.

The discovery of WAP1 has been simultaneously confirmed in the USA and Canada where scientists have independently identified the same gene for cereal flowering.

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