A root chicory MADS-box sequence and the Arabidopsis flowering repressor FLC share common features that suggest conserved function in vernalization and devernalization responses

Root chicory (Cichorium intybus var. sativum) is a biennial crop, but is harvested for root inulin at the end of the first growing season before flowering. However, cold temperatures might vernalize seeds or plantlets, leading to incidental early flowering and hence understanding the molecular basis of vernalization is wiimportant. A MADS-box sequence was isolated by RT-PCR and named FLC-LIKE1 (CiFL1) because of its phylogenetic positioning thin the same clade as the floral repressor Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS C (AtFLC). Moreover, overexpression of CiFL1 in Arabidopsis caused late flowering and prevented upregulation of the AtFLC target FLOWERING LOCUS T gene by photoperiod, suggesting functional conservation between root chicory and Arabidopsis. Like AtFLC in Arabidopsis, CiFL1 was repressed during vernalization of seeds or plantlets of chicory, but repression of CiFL1 was unstable whether the post-vernalization temperature was favorable to flowering or whether it devernalized the plants. Instability of CiFL1 repression might be linked to bienniality of root chicory versus the annual life cycle of Arabidopsis. However, reactivation of AtFLC was also observed in Arabidopsis when a high temperature treatment was given straight after seed vernalization, erasing the promotive effect of cold on flowering. Coldinduced downregulation of a MADS-box floral repressor and its reactivation by high temperature thus appear as conserved features of the vernalization and devernalization responses in distant species.