Flower Development and Photoperiodic Control of Flowering in Rice

Floral transition, which is referred to as a plant's transition from vegetative stage to reproductive stage, is considered to be a critical developmental switch in higher plants, for a timely flowering is a major factor of reproductive success. Endogenous and environmental cues, such as photoperiod, light quality, plant hormones concentrations and temperature, provide information to the plants whether the environment is favorable for flowering. These cues promote, or prevent, flowering through a complex genetic network, mediated by a careful orchestration of temporal and spatial gene expression. One of such cues is photoperiod. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) serves as a powerful model species for the understanding of flowering in higher plants, including flower development and photoperiodic control of flowering. In this review, we overviewed and discussed the flower development and its model. We also overviewed the photoperiodic pathways in rice flowering control, and summarized the pathways at molecular level.