Table 1.
Glossary of main terms as used in the review.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| flowering time | the switch from plant vegetative growth to reproductive development |
| bolting | rapid elongation of the inflorescence/flowering stem |
| annuals | plants that complete their entire life cycle from seed to flower within one year and are characterized by short vegetative phase |
| biennials | plants which require two years to complete their life cycle, |
| perennials | plants that survive for several years and restrict the duration of reproduction by cycling between vegetative growth and flowering; perennials are characterized by prolonged vegetative phase that can last from a few weeks to several years |
| shoot apical meristem (SAM) | population of cells located at the tip of the shoot axis that produce lateral organs, stem tissue and regenerates itself |
| inflorescence meristem (IM) | a meristem that underwent transition from vegetative to reproductive fate and can produce floral meristems |
| floral meristem (FM) | group of cells responsible for the formation of floral organs |
| facultative photoperiod | plants that flower faster under a particular photoperiod but will eventually flower under all photoperiods (also called “quantitative”) |
| obligate photoperiod | plants that flower only under a particular photoperiod (also called “qualitative”) |
| long days | day length more than about 12 h, usually 16 h light and 8 h dark periods |
| short days | day length less than about 12 h, usually 8 h light and 16 h dark periods |
| Double Haploid (DH) | chromosome doubling of haploid cells to produce genetically homozygous plants |
| genome-wide association study (GWAS) | observational study of a genome-wide set of genetic variants in different individuals that occur more frequently in correlation with a specific trait, identifying inherited genetic variants associated with a trait |
| homolog | a gene related to a second gene by descent from a common ancestral DNA sequence |
| ortholog | genes in different species that evolved from a common ancestral gene by speciation; normally, orthologs retain the same function in the course of evolution |
| paralog | genes related by duplication within a genome that may evolve new functions |
| maturity | the state of being fully developed or full grown |
| uniformity | a state or condition of the plant in which everything is regular, homogeneous, or unvarying |
| predictable | always behaving or occurring in the way expected |
| robust | is a characteristic of being strong that, when transposed into a system, it refers to the ability of tolerating perturbations and remain effective |
| QTL | (or Quantitative Trait Locus), is a locus (section of DNA) which correlates with variation of a quantitative trait in the phenotype of a population of organisms |
| vernalization | cold treatment needed to get many perennials to flower; usually the minimum period is six to twelve weeks at 4 °C |
| spring types | plants which flower early without vernalization |
| winter types | plants which have an obligate requirement for prolonged periods of cold temperatures |
| semi-winter types | plants which require mild vernalization and lack frost hardiness |