The Research Progress of Gibberellin on the Regulation of Flowering and Floral Organ Development in Plant

Gibberellins (GAs), which are tetracyclic diterpenoid growth factors, are essential regulators of many aspects of plant development, including seed germination, leaf expansion, stem and petiole elongation, flower induction, and floral organs development. GAs usually regulates the growth of plant by their synthesis, deactivation and signal transduction pathway under different ecological conditions and different development stage in plant. A role for GAs in flower induction of reproductively competent plants has been established primarily for long daylight and biennial species, in which flowering in non-inductive conditions can be achieved by the application of GAs. Meanwhile, the level of bioactive GAs often increases after the plants have been treated by long daylight and cold. Following floral initiation, a functional GA signaling pathway is essential for the normal development of floral organs especially for stamens, petals and overies. Gibberellin deficient or signal transduction mutants typically have short stamens and petals, even impaired male and female fertility due to abnormal stamen and overy development. The stamen, overy and receptacle appear to be the major sites of GAs biosynthesis within the developing flower, and the dependence of petals and calyx on the stamens, overies or receptacle as a source of GAs for their development is a clear example of paracrine signalling within flowers of some plants such as Arobidopsis, Petunia hybrid and Cucumis sativus. In this review, we summarize the understanding of the GAs biosynthesis, deactivation and signal transduction pathways in plants, and discuss how GAs regulates the induction of flower and floral organ development in response to environmental stimuli according to the research progress in recent years.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2019.04.0026