Research progress on the autonomous flowering time pathway in Arabidopsis

The transition from vegetative to reproductive growth phase is a pivotal and complicated process in the life cycle of flowering plants which requires a comprehensive response to multiple environmental aspects and endogenous signals. In Arabidopsis, six regulatory flowering time pathways have been defined by their response to distinct cues, namely photoperiod, vernalization, gibberellin, temperature, autonomous and age pathways, respectively. Among these pathways, the autonomous flowering pathway accelerates flowering independently of day length by inhibiting the central flowering repressor FLC. FCA, FLD, FLK, FPA, FVE, FY and LD have been widely known to play crucial roles in this pathway. Recently, AGL28, CK2, DBP1, DRM1, DRM2, ESD4, HDA5, HDA6, PCFS4, PEP, PP2A-B'γ, PRMT5, PRMT10, PRP39-1, REF6, and SYP22 have also been shown to be involved in the autonomous flowering time pathway. This review mainly focuses on FLC RNA processing, chromatin modification of FLC, post-translational modification of FLC and other molecular mechanisms in the autonomous flowering pathway of Arabidopsis.