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John Innes Centre

Environmental Responses

Project Leaders:

Caroline Dean
Philip Wigge

Plants are sessile and must therefore constantly monitor their environmental conditions and adjust their developmental programs accordingly.

image Certain types of Arabidopsis respond to over-wintering by flowering the next spring.

Information from many sensory pathways must be transmitted and integrated into key developmental pathways. We are seeking to understand the major mechanisms underlying the responses to cold temperature (vernalisation) and their effects on flowering time, as well as how changes in ambient temperature are perceived in plant development.

Signalling pathways of small molecules such as gibberellins are being elucidated to understand their roles during growth and development.