**Damiano Martignago , Beata Siemiatkowska , Alessandra Lombardi and Lucio Conti \***

Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, Via Giovanni Celoria, 26-20133 Milan, Italy; damiano.martignago@unimi.it (D.M.); beata.siemiatkowska@unimi.it (B.S.); alessandra.lombardi@unimi.it (A.L.)

**\*** Correspondence: lucio.conti@unimi.it; Tel.: +39-02-5031-5012

Received: 24 November 2020; Accepted: 17 December 2020; Published: 18 December 2020

**Abstract:** Plants can react to drought stress by anticipating flowering, an adaptive strategy for plant survival in dry climates known as drought escape (DE). In Arabidopsis, the study of DE brought to surface the involvement of abscisic acid (ABA) in controlling the floral transition. A central question concerns how and in what spatial context can ABA signals affect the floral network. In the leaf, ABA signaling affects flowering genes responsible for the production of the main florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). At the shoot apex, FD and FD-like transcription factors interact with FT and FT-like proteins to regulate ABA responses. This knowledge will help separate general and specific roles of ABA signaling with potential benefits to both biology and agriculture.

**Keywords:** abscisic acid (ABA); flowering time; Arabidopsis; drought escape; drought; *bZIP*; *GIGANTEA*; *CONSTANS*; *FLOWERING LOCUS T*; *FD*
