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Published on November 4, 2009; 10.1104/pp.109.140772

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Received May 4, 2009
Accepted October 30, 2009

Distinct patterns of genetic variation alter flowering responses of Arabidopsis accessions to different day lengths

Antonis Giakountis , Frederic Cremer , Sheina Sim , Matthieu Reymond , Johanna Schmitt , and George Coupland *

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl von Linne Weg 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary biology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA

* Corresponding author; email: coupland{at}mpiz-koeln.mpg.de.

Many plants flower in response to seasonal changes in day length. This response often varies between accessions of a single species. We studied the variation in photoperiod response found in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana. Seventy-two accessions were grown under six day lengths varying in 2 h intervals from 6 h to 16 h. The typical response was sigmoidal so that plants flowered early under days longer than 14 h, late under days shorter than 10 h and at intermediate times under 12 h days. However, many accessions diverged from this pattern and were clustered into groups showing related phenotypes. Thirty-one mutants and transgenic lines were also scored under the same conditions. Statistical comparisons demonstrated that some accessions show stronger responses to different day lengths than are found among the mutants. Genetic analysis of two such accessions demonstrated that different quantitative trait loci conferred an enhanced response to shortening the day length from 16 h to 14 h. Our data illustrate the spectrum of day-length response phenotypes present in accessions of Arabidopsis and demonstrate that similar phenotypic variation in photoperiodic response can be conferred by different combinations of loci.






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