Vernalization

Vernalization is the promotion or acceleration of flowering after a plant experiences prolonged cold. It lets some plants delay reproduction until after winter.

FLOWERING LOCUS C: A flowering-repressor gene in Arabidopsis and related plants that is silenced by prolonged cold. Its gradual repression is a central molecular response to vernalizing cold.
Photoperiodism: A biological response to the relative lengths of day and night. Many plants require both winter cold and a suitable day length before flowering.
Winter wheat: A wheat type sown in autumn that normally requires winter cold before it flowers and produces grain. Its seasonal flowering requirement is a classic agricultural use of vernalization.
Stratification (seeds): The treatment of seeds with moist chilling to overcome dormancy and promote germination. Unlike vernalization, it primarily releases seed dormancy rather than promoting flowering.
Gustav Gassner: A German botanist who investigated how temperature affects flowering in winter cereals. His experiments helped establish that cold exposure can be required for flowering.
FLOWERING LOCUS T: A gene whose product helps trigger flowering in response to seasonal and developmental signals. Vernalization permits flowering partly by relieving repression of this floral promoter.
Circadian clock in plants: An internal roughly 24-hour timing system that regulates plant physiology and gene expression. It helps plants measure day length, a flowering cue that interacts with vernalization.
Winter barley: A barley type planted before winter that requires a cold period for normal flowering and grain production. Its cold requirement affects planting schedules and crop adaptation.
Cold acclimation: The physiological adjustment that improves a plant's tolerance of freezing temperatures after exposure to cold. It helps plants survive winter; vernalization instead changes their later flowering competence.
Trofim Lysenko: A Soviet agronomist who promoted cold treatment of seeds and plants under the name vernalization. He popularized the term, though his broader political influence damaged Soviet biology.

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