The Role of Abscisic Acid in Plant Flowering

As a phytohormone, abscisic acid (ABA) regulates many aspects of plant growth and development, such as seed dormancy, germination , vegetative growth, and environment stresses. Evidence show that ABA involves in the control of flowering. The environmental factors involved in flowering induction, such as photoperiod changes, vernalization, and drought, affect ABA levels. Summarized here are the recent progresses on understanding the correlation between the four major pathways of flower induction and the ABA changes, on the ABA distribution in leaf buds and flower buds during bud differentiation, and on the ABA effect on bud differentiation during the tissue culture. The role of ABA in flower induction and development is discussed.