An D, Lai X, Han T, Nsigayehe J M V, Li G, Shen Y. 2025. Crossing latitude introduction delayed flowering and facilitated dry matter accumulation of soybean as a forage crop. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 24, 1436-1447.

Bailey T L, Williams N, Misleh C, Li W W. 2006. MEME: discovering and analyzing DNA and protein sequence motifs. Nucleic acids research, 34, W369-W373. 

Cao S M, Li T T, Shao Y X, Zhao Y Z, Zhang L Y, Lu L, Zhang R J, Hou S S, Liao X D, Luo X G, Wang R L. 2023. Establishment and evaluation of the primary cultured tibial osteoblast model of broiler chicks. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 22, 551-558.

Capstaff N M, Miller A J. 2018. Improving the Yield and Nutritional Quality of Forage Crops. Frontiers in plant science, 9, 535.

Chen L, Gao L, Liu L, Ding Z, Zhang H. 2015. Effect of graded levels of fiber from alfalfa meal on apparent and standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids of growing pigs. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 14, 2598-2604.

Corrales A R, Carrillo L, Lasierra P, Nebauer S G, Dominguez-Figueroa J, Renau-Morata B, Pollmann S, Granell A, Molina R V, Vicente-Carbajosa J, Medina J. 2017. Multifaceted role of cycling DOF factor 3 (CDF3) in the regulation of flowering time and abiotic stress responses in Arabidopsis. Plant cell environment, 40, 748-764.

Duarte J M, Cui L, Wall P K, Zhang Q, Zhang X, Leebens-Mack J, Ma H, Altman N, dePamphilis C W. 2006. Expression pattern shifts following duplication indicative of subfunctionalization and neofunctionalization in regulatory genes of Arabidopsis. Molecular biology and evolution, 23, 469-478.

Edgar R C. 2004. MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic acids research, 32, 1792-1797.

Fornara F, Panigrahi K C, Gissot L, Sauerbrunn N, Rühl M, Jarillo J A, Coupland G. 2009. Arabidopsis DOF transcription factors act redundantly to reduce CONSTANS expression and are essential for a photoperiodic flowering response. Developmental cell, 17, 75-86.

Freytes S N, Canelo M, Cerdán P D. 2021. Regulation of Flowering Time: When and Where? Current opinion in plant biology, 63, 102049.

Gao R, Feyissa B A, Croft M, Hannoufa A. 2018a. Gene editing by CRISPR/Cas9 in the obligatory outcrossing Medicago sativa. Planta, 247, 1043-1050.

Gao R, Gruber M Y, Amyot L, Hannoufa A. 2018b. SPL13 regulates shoot branching and flowering time in Medicago sativa. Plant molecular biology, 96, 119-133.

Goralogia G S, Liu T K, Zhao L, Panipinto P M, Groover E D, Bains Y S, Imaizumi T. 2017. CYCLING DOF FACTOR 1 represses transcription through the TOPLESS co-repressor to control photoperiodic flowering in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal, 92, 244-262.

Greenwood P L. 2021. Review: An overview of beef production from pasture and feedlot globally, as demand for beef and the need for sustainable practices increase. Animal, 15, 100295.

Griffin T S, Cassida K A, Hesterman O B, Rust S R. 1994. Alfalfa maturity and cultivar effects on chemical and in situ estimates of protein degradability. Crop Science, 34, 1654-1661.

He M, Zhang X, Ma Y, Zhang X, Chen S, Zhu Y, Wang Y, Liu L, Ma Y, Wang L, Xu L. 2023. RsCDF3, a member of Cycling Dof Factors, positively regulates cold tolerance via auto-regulation and repressing two RsRbohs transcription in radish (Raphanus sativus L.). Plant Science, 337, 111880.

Imaizumi T, Schultz T F, Harmon F G, Ho L A, Kay S A. 2005. FKF1 F-box protein mediates cyclic degradation of a repressor of CONSTANS in Arabidopsis. Science, 309, 293-297.

Jiang Q, Fu C, Wang Z Y. 2019. A Unified Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation Protocol for Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and Medicago truncatula. Methods in molecular biology, 1864, 153-163.

Jiang X, Cui H, Wang Z, Kang J, Yang Q, Guo C. 2023. Genome-Wide Analysis of the LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES Domain (LBD) Members in Alfalfa and the Involvement of MsLBD48 in Nitrogen Assimilation. International journal of molecular sciences, 24.

Kalu B A, Fick G W. 1983. Morphological Stage of Development as a Predictor of Alfalfa Herbage Quality. Crop Science, 23.

Kisu Y, Ono T, Shimofurutani N, Suzuki M, Esaka M. 1998. Characterization and expression of a new class of zinc finger protein that binds to silencer region of ascorbate oxidase gene. Plant Cell Physiology, 39, 1054-1064.

Kloosterman B, Abelenda J A, Gomez Mdel M, Oortwijn M, de Boer J M, Kowitwanich K, Horvath B M, van Eck H J, Smaczniak C, Prat S, Visser R G, Bachem C W. 2013. Naturally occurring allele diversity allows potato cultivation in northern latitudes. Nature, 495, 246-250.

Le Hir R, Bellini C. 2013. The plant-specific dof transcription factors family: new players involved in vascular system development and functioning in Arabidopsis. Frontiers in plant science, 4, 164.

Lijavetzky D, Carbonero P, Vicente-Carbajosa J. 2003. Genome-wide comparative phylogenetic analysis of the rice and Arabidopsis Dof gene families. BMC evolutionary biology, 3, 17.

Linn J G, Martin N P. 1991. Forage quality analyses and interpretation. The Veterinary clinics of North America Food animal practice, 7, 509-523.

Lorenzo C D, García-Gagliardi P, Antonietti M S, Sánchez-Lamas M, Mancini E, Dezar C A, Vazquez M, Watson G, Yanovsky M J, Cerdán P D. 2020. Improvement of alfalfa forage quality and management through the down-regulation of MsFTa1. Plant biotechnology journal, 18, 944-954.

Lucas-Reina E, Romero-Campero F J, Romero J M, Valverde F. 2015. An Evolutionarily Conserved DOF-CONSTANS Module Controls Plant Photoperiodic Signaling. Plant physiology, 168, 561-574.

Ma L, Liu X, Liu W, Wen H, Zhang Y, Pang Y, Wang X. 2021. Characterization of Squamosa-Promoter Binding Protein-Box Family Genes Reveals the Critical Role of MsSPL20 in Alfalfa Flowering Time Regulation. Frontiers in plant science, 12, 775690.

Martín G, Veciana N, Boix M, Rovira A, Henriques R, Monte E. 2020. The photoperiodic response of hypocotyl elongation involves regulation of CDF1 and CDF5 activity. Physiologia plantarum, 169, 480-490.

Morris K, Jackson S D. 2010. DAY NEUTRAL FLOWERING does not act through GIGANTEA and FKF1 to regulate CONSTANS expression and flowering time. Plant signaling & behavior, 5, 1105-1107.

Noguero M, Atif R M, Ochatt S, Thompson R D. 2013. The role of the DNA-binding One Zinc Finger (DOF) transcription factor family in plants. Plant Science, 209, 32-45.

Park H J, Kim W Y, Pardo J M, Yun D J. 2016. Molecular Interactions Between Flowering Time and Abiotic Stress Pathways. International review of cell and molecular biology, 327, 371-412.

Putterill J, Zhang L, Yeoh C C, Balcerowicz M, Jaudal M, Gasic E V. 2013. FT genes and regulation of flowering in the legume Medicago truncatula. Functional plant biology, 40, 1199-1207.

Renau-Morata B, Carrillo L, Dominguez-Figueroa J, Vicente-Carbajosa J, Molina R V, Nebauer S G, Medina J. 2020. CDF transcription factors: plant regulators to deal with extreme environmental conditions. Journal of experimental botany, 71, 3803-3815.

Renau-Morata B, Molina R V, Carrillo L, Cebolla-Cornejo J, Sánchez-Perales M, Pollmann S, Domínguez-Figueroa J, Corrales A R, Flexas J, Vicente-Carbajosa J, Medina J, Nebauer S G. 2017. Ectopic Expression of CDF3 Genes in Tomato Enhances Biomass Production and Yield under Salinity Stress Conditions. Frontiers in plant science, 8, 660.

Ridge S, Sussmilch F C, Hecht V, Vander Schoor J K, Lee R, Aubert G, Burstin J, Macknight R C, Weller J L. 2016. Identification of LATE BLOOMER2 as a CYCLING DOF FACTOR Homolog Reveals Conserved and Divergent Features of the Flowering Response to Photoperiod in Pea. Plant Cell, 28, 2545-2559.

Sawa M, Nusinow D A, Kay S A, Imaizumi T. 2007. FKF1 and GIGANTEA complex formation is required for day-length measurement in Arabidopsis. Science, 318, 261-265.

Shen C, Du H, Chen Z, Lu H, Zhu F, Chen H, Meng X, Liu Q, Liu P, Zheng L, Li X, Dong J, Liang C, Wang T. 2020. The Chromosome-Level Genome Sequence of the Autotetraploid Alfalfa and Resequencing of Core Germplasms Provide Genomic Resources for Alfalfa Research. Molecular plant, 13, 1250-1261.

Song Y H, Smith R W, To B J, Millar A J, Imaizumi T. 2012. FKF1 conveys timing information for CONSTANS stabilization in photoperiodic flowering. Science, 336, 1045-1049.

Su Z, Wang J, Yu J, Huang X, Gu X. 2006. Evolution of alternative splicing after gene duplication. Genome research, 16, 182-189.

Sugiyama T, Ishida T, Tabei N, Shigyo M, Konishi M, Yoneyama T, Yanagisawa S. 2012. Involvement of PpDof1 transcriptional repressor in the nutrient condition-dependent growth control of protonemal filaments in Physcomitrella patens. Journal of experimental botany, 63, 3185-3197.

Tadege M, Chen F, Murray J, Wen J, Ratet P, Udvardi M K, Dixon R A, Mysore K S. 2015. Control of Vegetative to Reproductive Phase Transition Improves Biomass Yield and Simultaneously Reduces Lignin Content in Medicago truncatula. BioEnergy Research, 8, 857-867.

Takagi H, Hempton A K, Imaizumi T. 2023. Photoperiodic flowering in Arabidopsis: Multilayered regulatory mechanisms of CONSTANS and the florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T. Plant communications, 4, 100552.

Weller J L, Ortega R. 2015. Genetic control of flowering time in legumes. Frontiers in plant science, 6, 207.

Wickland D P, Hanzawa Y. 2015. The FLOWERING LOCUS T/TERMINAL FLOWER 1 Gene Family: Functional Evolution and Molecular Mechanisms. Molecular Plant, 8, 983-997.

Wolabu T W, Mahmood K, Jerez I T, Cong L, Yun J, Udvardi M, Tadege M, Wang Z, Wen J. 2023. Multiplex CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of alfalfa FLOWERING LOCUS Ta1 (MsFTa1) leads to delayed flowering time with improved forage biomass yield and quality. Plant biotechnology journal, 21, 1383-1392.

Wong A C, Hecht V F, Picard K, Diwadkar P, Laurie R E, Wen J, Mysore K, Macknight R C, Weller J L. 2014. Isolation and functional analysis of CONSTANS-LIKE genes suggests that a central role for CONSTANS in flowering time control is not evolutionarily conserved in Medicago truncatula. Frontiers in plant science, 5, 486.

Xu D, Li X, Wu X, Meng L, Zou Z, Bao E, Bian Z, Cao K. 2021. Tomato SlCDF3 Delays Flowering Time by Regulating Different FT-Like Genes Under Long-Day and Short-Day Conditions. Frontiers in plant science, 12, 650068.

Xu, R, Pu Z, Han S, Yu H, Guo C, Huang Q, Zhang Y. 2025. Managing forage for grain: Strategies and mechanisms for enhancing forage production to ensure feed grain security. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 24, 2025-2034.

Yan H, Jin Y, Yu H, Wang C, Wu B, Jones C. S, Wang X, Xie Z, Huang L. 2024. Genomic selection for agronomical phenotypes using genome-wide SNPs and SVs in pearl millet. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 137: 244.

Yanagisawa S, Schmidt R J. 1999. Diversity and similarity among recognition sequences of Dof transcription factors. Plant journal, 17, 209-214.

Yuan N, Mendu L, Ghose K, Witte C. S, Frugoli J, Mendu V. 2023. FKF1 Interacts with CHUP1 and Regulates Chloroplast Movement in Arabidopsis. Plants (Basel), 12.

Zhang L, Jiang A, Thomson G, Kerr-Phillips M, Phan C, Krueger T, Jaudal M, Wen J, Mysore K S, Putterill J. 2019. Overexpression of Medicago MtCDFd1_1 Causes Delayed Flowering in Medicago via Repression of MtFTa1 but Not MtCO-Like Genes. Frontiers in plant science, 10, 1148.

Zou X, Sun H. 2023. DOF transcription factors: Specific regulators of plant biological processes. Frontiers in plant science, 14, 1044918.