Japanese researchers are exploring chemicals that regulate the timing of flowering, with the goal of improving crop yield and resilience.
As climate change increasingly threatens global food security, scientists around the world are seeking dependable methods to enhance crop production. Unpredictable weather patterns and shifting seasons are disrupting traditional farming cycles, making technologies that control the timing of plant growth essential for modern agriculture.
Plant growth and development are influenced by various factors, including environmental conditions, day length (photoperiod), and genetics. Flowering is a critical stage in a plant’s life cycle. In many species, this process requires exposure to a period of cold, known as vernalization, before flowering can occur in the spring. Once flowering begins, plants often shift their resources from leaf development to seed production, which lowers the nutritional value of leafy crops.
While researchers have uncovered much about how flowering is initiated, the natural mechanisms that can delay, pause, or reverse this transition—a process known as devernalization—are still not well understood.
Understanding and Reversing Vernalization
Against this backdrop, a research team led by Assistant Professor Makoto Shirakawa of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, has been investigating the molecular basis of devernalization. They identified a new class of small molecules called devernalizers (DVRs), capable of inducing devernalization without the requirement of heat treatment in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Their findings were published in Volume 8 of Communications Biology on January 22, 2025.
This work was co-authored by Nana Otsuka, Ryoya Yamaguchi, Hikaru Sawa, Nobutoshi Yamaguchi, and Toshiro Ito from NAIST; Naoya Kadofusa, Nanako Kato, and Ayato Sato from Nagoya University; and Yasuyuki Nomura and Atsushi J. Nagano from Ryukoku University.
The researchers screened over 16,000 chemical compounds and discovered five DVRs that reactivated the expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS C gene, a key suppressor of flowering. By minimizing specific dynamic modifications to the plant’s genes, these DVRs could delay flowering even after induced vernalization. Notably, 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.
DVR06: A Promising Compound for Agriculture
Furthermore, the team identified a sixth DVR compound—named DVR06—which was structurally simpler yet retained the above-mentioned key features. Experimental results showed that plants treated with DVR06 exhibited delayed flowering without adverse side effects. A genome-wide analysis revealed that 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 labor-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!” shares Shirakawa.
The discovery of DVR06 and its mechanisms could pave the way for new agricultural technologies that allow farmers to effectively regulate flowering times. By delaying flowering, leafy crops may maintain their nutritional quality for longer periods, increasing yields and reducing wastage.
The research team aims to improve the efficacy of DVRs, as Ito remarks: “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.”
Reference: “Small molecules and heat treatments reverse vernalization via epigenetic modification in Arabidopsis” by Nana Otsuka, Ryoya Yamaguchi, Hikaru Sawa, Naoya Kadofusa, Nanako Kato, Yasuyuki Nomura, Nobutoshi Yamaguchi, Atsushi J. Nagano, Ayato Sato, Makoto Shirakawa and Toshiro Ito, 22 January 2025, Communications Biology.
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-07553-7
Funding: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, Takeda Science Foundation, Nara Institute of Science and Technology
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