AsianScientist (Apr. 16, 2025) – As climate change continues to disrupt traditional agricultural cycles around the world, scientists in Japan have discovered new chemical compounds that can regulate the timing of flowering of crops. The findings of this research could help increase crop yields and improve food security.
Plant growth and development depends on several environmental signals, such as temperature, daylight hours and genetics. In many species, flowering in the spring only begins after a period of cold exposure, a process called vernalization. Once flowering begins, the plant starts focusing its energy on making seeds, reducing the nutritional value of leafy crops.
While scientists understand many aspects of the flowering process, there is still much to explore about how to pause or reverse this process through devernalization. Until now, the only way to do this was by exposing plants to heat, which isn’t always practical or affordable for farmers. Delayed flowering helps leafy crops maintain their nutritional quality for longer periods, increasing yields and reducing wastage.
Now, a research team led by assistant professor Makoto Shirakawa of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, has discovered a group of small molecules, named devernalizers (DVRs), that can delay flowering without any heat treatment. They tested these chemicals on Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant used in scientific research. Their findings were published in Communications Biology.
By screening more than 16,000 chemical compounds, the team found five DVRs that reactivated the expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS C gene, a key suppressor of flowering. These DVRs work by changing how certain proteins attach to the plant’s DNA, helping delay the flowering process even after the plant has gone through cold exposure. Three of these DVRs shared two critical structural features — a hydantoin-like region and a spiro-like carbon — which were found to be essential for the devernalizing effect.
The team identified a sixth DVR compound, called DVR06, which was structurally simpler yet retained the key features. Plants treated with DVR06 flowered later, without showing any negative side effects. DVR06 affected a more specific set of genes compared to heat-induced devernalization, highlighting its potential for flowering regulation.
“It was well known that applying heat treatment to plants in the field is both labour-intensive and costly. So, I was really excited when we found out that DVR06 had a more specific effect than heat treatment. This was the moment when all the time we had spent on screening finally paid off!” said Shirakawa.
The discovery of DVR06 and its mechanisms could pave the way for new agricultural technologies that allow farmers to effectively regulate flowering times.
The team now aims to improve the efficacy of DVRs to make them even more effective. “We will conduct further research to change the structure of DVRs to develop compounds with greater activity and specificity. We expect the results of these studies to lead to the development of new technologies for stable food production under a fluctuating global environment,” said co-author Toshiro Ito.
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Source: Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. Image: Shutterstock
The article can be found at Small molecules and heat treatments reverse vernalization via epigenetic modification in Arabidopsis
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