How plants pattern flowers: lessons from molecular genetic studies of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana a model plant

Abstract

Understanding mechanisms that regulate when, where and how flowers are formed would elucidate cell-fate determination in plants. Some of the advances made towards deciphering genes controlling floral induction, meristem specification and floral organ patterning are reviewed here. Studies beginning in the early 1980s of mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana or Antirrhinum majus that alter either floral induction or floral meristem fate or floral organ fate were start points for these analyses. Cloning and functional characterization of the corresponding genes has illustrated how transcription factors of the MADS box gene-family or factors involved in cell-cell signalling regulate cell fate. These studies reveal evolutionarily conserved elements in the flower development pathway.