Summary of factors influencing proliferative arrest. Environmental factors affect the timing of the beginning and the end of flowering, partly through FT, although their precise contribution to proliferative arrest is still largely uncharacterized. Endogenous clues such as age or, more importantly, the production of seeds are major players in the control of the process. In inflorescences in the proliferative state, at earlier stages of the reproductive phase, CK signaling and transcription factors maintaining the activity of the meristem (AP2, WUS) are active, while age-related factors such as miR172 or FUL, negative regulators of AP2, are present at relatively low levels. At the end of the flowering phase, corresponding to the proliferative decline described by Merelo et al. (2022), CK signaling, AP2 and WUS levels decrease, in part by the negative regulation exerted by FUL and miR172, which accumulate with age. WUS decline is accompanied by the cessation of meristem activity, and in the shutdown phase (inflorescence arrest) WUS is no longer detected. In addition, the decreasing levels of AP2 cause high ABA and JA signaling, inducing a dormant-like state of the meristem. Auxin exported from fruits has a strong influence on meristem activity, and it has been proposed that they act to promote the floral arrest phase (Walker et al., 2023).