that these internal pacemakers "are regulated by the interaction of four sets of genes expressed in the dawn, morning, afternoon, and evening hours [and that] light may augment the amplitude of the oscillations by activating the morning and evening genes." The rhythms between these different genes are generated internally in the plants, starts with the leaves, but requires an environmental stimulus such as light. The light essentially stimulates the transmission of a floral stimulus (florigen) to the shoot apex when the correct amount of day-length is perceived. This process is known as photoperiodic induction and is a photoperiod-regulated process that is also dependent on the endogenous oscillator. The current model suggests the involvement of multiple different factors. Research into florigen is predominately centred on the model organism and long day plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Whilst much of the florigen pathways appear to be well conserved in other studied species, variations do exist. The mechanism may be broken down into three stages: photoperiod-regulated initiation, signal translocation via the phloem, and induction of flowering at the shoot apical meristem. Initiation In Arabidopsis thaliana, the signal is initiated by the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) coding a transcription factor called CONSTANS (CO). CO mRNA is produced approximately 12 hours after dawn, a cycle regulated by the plant's circadian rhythms, and is then translated into CO protein. However CO protein is stable only in light, so levels stay low throughout short days and are only able to peak at dusk during long days when there is still some light. CO protein promotes transcription of another gene called (FT). By this mechanism, CO protein may only reach levels capable of promoting FT transcription when exposed to long days. Hence, the transmission of florigen—and thus, the induction of flowering—relies on a comparison between the plant's perception of day/night and its own internal biological clock. Translocation The FT protein resulting from the short period of CO transcription factor activity is then transported via the phloem to the shoot apical meristem. Flowering Florigen is a systemically mobile signal that is synthesized in leaves and the transported via the phloem to the shoot apical meristem (SAM) where it initiates flowering. In Arabidopsis, the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) genes encode for the flowering hormone and in rice the hormone is encoded by Hd3a genes thereby making these genes orthologs. It was found though the use of transgenic plants that the Hd3a