Fig. 1: (a) Multiple sequence alignment of PEBP-like protein sequences. Sequences were aligned using the MUSCLE alignment tool. Sequences are aligned to the 81-172 amino acid long region of FT protein from Arabidopsis. The marked residues/conserved domains are required for the corresponding activity of FT and TFL1-like sequences. The band at the bottom of the alignment represents the percentage of conservation of the amino acids at a position. Red indicates stronger conservation while blue represents variable sequences. (b)Phylogenetic reconstruction of the PEBP-gene family with homologous C. pallens sequences . The evolutionary history was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the JTT matrix-based model. The bootstrap consensus tree inferred from 1000 replicates is taken to represent the evolutionary history of the taxa analyzed. Aly: Arabidopsis lyrata subsp. lyrata, Ath:Arabidopsis thaliana , Ac: Allium cepa, Bv: Beta vulgaris, Bd: Brachypodium distachyon, Cs:Chrysanthemum seticuspe , Chm: Chrysanthemum X morifolium,Gm: Glycine max, Ha: Helianthus annuus, Nt:Nicotiana tabacum , Osa: Oryza sativa, Ptr:Populus trichocarpa, ZCN: Zea mays and C. pallens . Branches in red represent the MFT clade, blue represents theTFL1 clade and green represents the FT clade. (c) Functional characterization of the C. pallens PEBP- like sequences. The number of rosette leaves of the transgenic and the wild-type plants at flowering (mean ± SD, n = 10). (Significance of transgenic and control plants compared to Ler ft-1 , Student’s t-test *** P < 0.001, ** P <0.01). The x-axis represents Ler as the control plant, Ler ft-1, as the mutant, and the transgenic lines transformed with FT/TFL1 -like sequences from C. pallenscloned into the binary vector pB2GW7 with the AtSUC2 promoter.