The wheat MYB-related transcription factor TaMYB72 promotes flowering in rice

Through large-scale transformation analyses, TaMYB72 was identified as a flowering time regulator in wheat. TaMYB72 is a MYB family transcription factor localized to the nucleus. Three TaMYB72 homologs, TaMYB72-A, TaMYB72-B and TaMYB72-D, cloned from hexaploid wheat were mapped to the short arm of the group 6 chromosomes. Under the long-day conditions, over-expression of the TaMYB72 in rice shortened the flowering time by approximately 12d. Expression analyses suggest that TaMYB72 may function through up-regulation of florigen genes Hd3a and RFT1.