Biochemical Changes

Many workers have tried to follow the biochemical changes that precede flowering and result in meristems which give rise to flowers instead of vegetative structures. In Pharbitis, which is a short-day plant and requires only one dark period for flowering it was found that soon after the dark period, the flowering stimulus begins to move out of the leaves. In this experiment, the plant was given inductive conditions and after specific time intervals, biochemical changes were measured in meristems. An increase in metabolic activity around 40th hour at the floral apex was manifested by an increase in the level of RNA, proteins and ribosomes. Electron microscopic observations also revealed extensive formation of endoplasmic reticulum.

These activities were followed by an increase in DNA synthesis and mitotic activity. At about 88th hour after floral induction, the rate of cell division increased at apical and axillary meristems and the increase in cell division was noticed particularly in the central zone and peripheral zones of apical meristems. Such experiments have also been done in other plants. However, it has not been possible yet to identify which of the RNA or proteins are responsible for the onset of flowering. With the application of newer techniques it has been possible to suggest that there are some specific flowering genes which get switch on after receiving specific light-dark cycle. Although we do not know the products of all these genes, some of them have been shown to code for proteins which regulate transcription.