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The timing of flowering is extremely relevant for the individual reproductive outcome and the overall population survival of plants. This biological process is strictly controlled by environmental and endogenous cues that are integrated into a single response through a complex regulatory network. SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) is a MADS-box transcription factor acting as a major repressor of the floral integrators in the ambient temperature and vernalization pathway, thereby inhibiting flowering. Furthermore, SVP has been characterized as a stress hub transcription factor related to for example drought tolerance and shoot apical meristem maintenance. In the present context of global warming, knowledge of plant plasticity and adaptation to external fluctuations is vital for a sustainable global food security.

We combined various novel and state-of-the-art technologies, including native protein complex isolations, to unravel the molecular characteristics that enable SVP to be multitasking and to control simultaneously the timing of flowering and e.g. drought tolerance. We also investigated how protein-protein interaction specificity is laid down in the primary SVP amino acid sequence and compared this to the interaction specificity of the SVP-paralog AGL24. In contrast to SVP, AGL24 acts as activator of flowering. Latest findings of this research will be presented and discussed.