Interrupting long nights by short pulses of light accelerates flowering in wheat

In order to address the knowledge gap in the mechanisms of photoperiodic induction of flowering by phytochrome, Pearce et al. studied flowering behavior in wheat grown under short days, with the interruption of the long nights by short pluses of light (night breaks). Their study showed that night breaks accelerate flowering, and also demonstrated that the response is mediated by photoperiod and phytochrome and requires both PHYB and PHYC. Night breaks affect the expression of PHOTOPERIOD1 (PPD1), which affects the expression of the flowering promoter FT1. (Summary by Sridhar Gutam) Plant Physiol. 10.​1104/​pp.​17.​00361