WRKY71 accelerates flowering via the direct activation of FLOWERING LOCUS T and LEAFY in Arabidopsis thaliana

Summary Flowering is crucial for achieving reproductive success. A large number of well‐delineated factors affecting flowering are involved in complex genetic networks in Arabidopsis thaliana . However, the underlying part played by the WRKY transcription factors in this process is not yet clear. Here, we report that WRKY 71 is able to accelerate flowering in Arabidopsis. An activation‐tagged mutant WRKY 71‐1D and a constitutive over‐expresser of WRKY 71 both flowered earlier than the wild type ( WT ). In contrast, both the RNA interference‐based multiple WRKY knock‐out mutant ( w71w8 + 28 RNA i ) and the dominant repression line ( W71‐ SRDX ) flowered later. Gene expression analysis showed that the transcript abundance of the flowering time integrator gene FLOWERING LOCUS T ( FT ) and the floral meristem identity genes LEAFY ( LFY ), APETALA 1 ( AP 1 ) and FRUITFULL ( FUL ) were greater in WRKY 71‐1D than in the WT , but lower in w71w8 + 28 RNA i and W71‐ SRDX . Further, WRKY 71 was shown to bind to the W‐boxes in the FT and LFY promoters in vitro and in vivo . The suggestion is that WRKY 71 activity hastens flowering via the direct activation of FT and LFY .