Nevertheless, it should be noted that transgenic plants grown under short day conditions did show a delay in flowering DPPE hydrochloride compared to those grown under long day conditions indicating that photoperiod did to some extent influence the timing of flowering in transgenic lines. The early flowering was associated with higher levels of the FT transcript, the gene involved in initiating flowering. Expression of the truncated form of SlERF36 abrogated the early flowering phenotype of full length SlERF36 expression under both short day and long day conditions. Its expression did not affect FT transcript levels in spite of the presence of the AP2 domain. This indicated that the presence of the EAR motif was essential for the higher FT transcript levels and the early flowering phenotype although an effect of other deleted C-terminal residues cannot be ruled out. The fact that SlERF6 over-expression accelerates flowering regardless of photoperiod and in plants as different as Arabidopsis and tobacco suggests that SlERF36 might interact in some way with the general flowering machinery and regulate a component that is common to both photoperiods. Considering that EAR motif containing proteins function as active Chromanol 293B repressors of transcription, and that SlERF36 expression leads to increased FT transcript levels, one could envisage a possibility where the direct or indirect repression of a floral inhibitor by SlERF36 could activate FT and thereby flowering in the transgenic lines. An interesting possibility that would require further studies is whether SlERF36 affects expression of homologues of TEMPRANILLO that are known to directly repress FT expression or whether it in some way controls TOE1/TOE2 or miRNA172, the regulation of which affects flowering in both short and long day conditions. Incidentally, both TEM and TOE members belong to the AP2/ERF/RAV domain family of transcription factors. Of the other changes, those related to early senescence appeared to be a consequence of the early flowering phenotype and therefore developmental in nature. This is based on the observations that although senescence was early in transgenic SlERF36 plants, it was dependent on the photoperiodic flowering and was delayed when flowering was delayed in short day conditions. Under these conditions, rosette sizes were larger than under long day conditions and plants took a longer time to senesce.