Vegetative phase changes in plants describes the transition between juvenile and adult phases of vegetative growth before flowering. It is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for plants to sense developmental signals, presenting a complex process involving many still-unknown determinants. Several studies in annual and perennial plants have identified the conservative roles of miR156 and its targets, SBP/SPL genes, in guiding the switch of plant growth from juvenile to adult phases. Here, we review recent progress in understanding the regulation of miR156 expression and how miR156-SPLs mediated plant age affect other processes in Arabidopsis. Powerful high-throughput sequencing techniques have provided rich data to systematically study the regulatory mechanisms of miR156 regulation network. From this data, we draw an expanded miR156-regulated network that links plant developmental transition and other fundamental biological processes, gaining novel and broad insight into the molecular mechanisms of plant-age-related processes in Arabidopsis.
Keywords: flowering plant; gene regulatory network; miR156; next-generation sequencing; phase change.