OsFTIP1 is required for transport of rice flowering signal (florigen)

Flowering at the right time of year is crucial for plant reproductive success, so in many plants the transition to reproductive growth is sensitive to daylength.  In recent years, the daylength-responsive signal that moves from leaves to the shoot apical meristem, florigen (encoded by FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) in Arabidopsis), has been identified, but questions about its transport remain. Song et al. used CRISPR/Cas to mutagenize OsFTIP1, the rice orthologue of FT-INTERACTING PROTEIN 1, demonstrating its requirement for the movement of RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T (RFT) from companion cells to sieve elements and subsequent transport to the shoot apical meristem. The authors also show that the abundance of OsFTIP1 in leaves is regulated by proteolysis. Plant Cell 10.​1105/​tpc.​16.​00728