About this Research Topic
Plants are sessile organisms that react during their life cycle to a variety of external stimuli. Light intensity, quality of the light, day length, and temperature are just some examples of factors that regulate plant development. Although a certain specificity in the way and in the tissue where these external stimuli are perceived, a generalized response often takes place that involves changes in the shoot apical meristem. Consequently, plant growth, phenology, and architecture can be modulated to better adapt plants to changing external conditions, a crucial ability in the actual scenario of Global Climate Change.
In the last years, many new players involved in the sensing and downstream signaling of the external environment have been identified, linking the function of unknown genes to a number of new phenotypes and proteins functions. Intriguingly, orthologs genes in different species evolved on several occasions independent functions, possibly as response to the different evolutionary pressure shaping plants traits. A well-known example of this is AtCO, a key member of the photoperiodic pathway and positive regulator of flowering time in Arabidopsis: the orthologue gene in rice (OsHd1) has a dual function, being able to promote or repress flowering depending on the day length, while in potato StCO is involved in tuberization in response to inductive photoperiod.
This Research Topic aims at providing an overview on CONSTANS (CO) and CONSTANS-LIKE (COL) genes across different species to explore their regulation and their role in plant development.
We welcome submissions of all article types published by Frontiers in Plant Science relevant to CO and COL orthologs, including, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Role of CO and COL in plant development in non-model species
• Light quality and photoperiod control of CO and COL at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level
• Genetic diversity at CO and COL loci
• CO and COL protein functional diversification in different species and the impact in plant adaptation
Studies that are purely data mining from other species, without invoking functions or pathways are out of scope for this research topic.
Please note: Frontiers in Plant Science does not accept solely descriptive studies - studies which report responses to treatments and descriptive reports of ‘Omics studies without progressing biological understanding of these responses.
In the last years, many new players involved in the sensing and downstream signaling of the external environment have been identified, linking the function of unknown genes to a number of new phenotypes and proteins functions. Intriguingly, orthologs genes in different species evolved on several occasions independent functions, possibly as response to the different evolutionary pressure shaping plants traits. A well-known example of this is AtCO, a key member of the photoperiodic pathway and positive regulator of flowering time in Arabidopsis: the orthologue gene in rice (OsHd1) has a dual function, being able to promote or repress flowering depending on the day length, while in potato StCO is involved in tuberization in response to inductive photoperiod.
This Research Topic aims at providing an overview on CONSTANS (CO) and CONSTANS-LIKE (COL) genes across different species to explore their regulation and their role in plant development.
We welcome submissions of all article types published by Frontiers in Plant Science relevant to CO and COL orthologs, including, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Role of CO and COL in plant development in non-model species
• Light quality and photoperiod control of CO and COL at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level
• Genetic diversity at CO and COL loci
• CO and COL protein functional diversification in different species and the impact in plant adaptation
Studies that are purely data mining from other species, without invoking functions or pathways are out of scope for this research topic.
Please note: Frontiers in Plant Science does not accept solely descriptive studies - studies which report responses to treatments and descriptive reports of ‘Omics studies without progressing biological understanding of these responses.
Keywords: CONSTANS, CONSTANS Orthologs, Plant Development, Photoperiod, Plant Adaptation, Non-model species
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
