[Tien-Shin Yu] Movement of tobacco and tomato PEBP mRNA

Photoperiodic floral induction is controlled by the leaf-derived and antagonistic mobile signals florigen and antiflorigen. Florigen and antiflorigen are encoded by a pair of homologues belong to PEBP gene family. In many plants, protein movement of PEBP genes is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism; however, mRNA movement of PEBP genes remains controversial. A recent publication from Dr. Tien-Shin Yu’s lab provided evidences to show that multiple members in FT-, TFL1- and MFT-like clades of tobacco and tomato PEBP genes are mobile mRNAs, which raises an intriguing possibility that the mRNA mobility may be an early evolutionary event that occurred before the divergence of FT/TFL1-like clades from MFT-like clades (Huang et al., Plant Physiol., 2018).