Increased ascorbate content delays flowering in long-day grown Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh

Flowering requires the integration of different inductive stimuli, including light, temperature and hormones. In an attempt to assess whether ascorbate (ASC) could contribute to the control of flowering time, we analyzed the effects of increased ASC content on the transition to the reproductive stage in the facultative long-day plant Arabidopsis thaliana. ASC content was increased by spraying leaves with the ASC precursor L-galactono-gamma-lactone. Our data show that increased ASC content did not affect vegetative growth, whereas a significant delay (5 days in average) in flower production occurred in ASC-overproducing plants. Higher ASC availability resulted in delayed expression of LEAFY (LFY), the gene encoding for a key transcription factor integrating different flowering-inductive pathways. On the contrary, spraying with gibberellin under the same condition caused both early LFY expression and early flowering. The possible role of ASC in the transition to the reproductive stage is discussed.