Vegetative phase change is the

juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...

-to-

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of ...

transition in plants. This transition is distinct from the reproductive transition and is most prolonged and pronounced in woody species. Manipulating phase change may be an important avenue for plant improvement. In the model plant ''

Arabidopsis ''Arabidopsis'' (rockcress) is a genus in the family Brassicaceae. They are small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress (''Arabidopsis thaliana''), one of the model org ...

thaliana'', vegetative phase change is relatively subtle: leaves become more curled, with an increased number of abaxial trichomes, and increased serration. Studies in ''A. thaliana'' and

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

identified

microRNA MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. m ...

''MIR156'' genes as master regulators of phase change, through their regulation of SQUAMOSA-PROMOTER-BINDING-LIKE (SBP/SPL)

transcription factor In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence. The fu ...

s. This

gene regulatory circuit Genetic regulatory circuits (also referred to as transcriptional regulatory circuits) is a concept that evolved from the Operon Model discovered by François Jacob and Jacques Monod. They are functional clusters of genes that impact each other's ...

appears to be conserved (with variations) in all land plants, including

mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and h ...

References

{{reflist * * * * Plant physiology

See also

References