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  • Review Article
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Molecular mechanisms of flower development: an armchair guide

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 6, pages 688–698 (2005)Cite this article

Key Points

  • Floral-meristem identity genes promote flower development by repressing genes that promote an inflorescence fate and activate floral-organ identity genes.

  • The updated ABCE model of floral-organ identity states that SEPALLATA (E class) genes function with different combinations of the A, B and C class floral-organ identity genes to specify sepal, petal, stamen and carpel identity.

  • Most of the ABCE class floral-organ identity genes encode MADS domain proteins, which form multimeric transcriptional regulatory complexes.

  • Regulation of floral-organ identity gene expression is complex and occurs at multiple levels including post-translational regulation by microRNAs.

  • New approaches have begun to reveal downstream targets of floral-organ identity genes, but the complex regulatory cascades that control floral organogenesis are not well understood.

  • Molecular genetic studies are starting to reveal the mechanisms that are behind other aspects of flower development, such as the regulation of organ size and the generation of floral symmetry.

  • Regulation of floral-organ identity seems to occur through similar mechanisms in eudicots and monocots.

Abstract

An afternoon stroll through an English garden reveals the breathtaking beauty and enormous diversity of flowering plants. The extreme variation of flower morphologies, combined with the relative simplicity of floral structures and the wealth of floral mutants available, has made the flower an excellent model for studying developmental cell-fate specification, morphogenesis and tissue patterning. Recent molecular genetic studies have begun to reveal the transcriptional regulatory cascades that control early patterning events during flower formation, the dynamics of the gene-regulatory interactions, and the complex combinatorial mechanisms that create a distinct final floral architecture and form.

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Figure 1: The ABCE model for floral-organ patterning.
Figure 2: The quartet model for potential formation of MADS domain protein-regulatory complexes.
Figure 3: mRNA expression patterns of the Arabidopsis thaliana floral-organ identity genes during two stages of flower development.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank E. Coen, G. Ditta, M. Yanofsky, G. Angenent and P. McSteen for supplying photographs, and Y. Eshed for communicating results prior to publication. We acknowledge support for our work from the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Energy.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, 700 Sumter Street, Columbia, 29208, South Carolina, USA

    Beth A. Krizek

  2. USDA-ARS Plant Gene Expression Center, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, 94710, California

    Jennifer C. Fletcher

  3. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Jennifer C. Fletcher

Authors
  1. Beth A. Krizek
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  2. Jennifer C. Fletcher
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Correspondence to Jennifer C. Fletcher.

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DATABASES

TAIR

ag

AGL24

AP1

ap2

ap3

CAL

hen2

hen4

HUA1

HUA2

LFY

pi

sep1

sep2

sep3

SHP1

SHP2

STK

TFL1

TRX1

UFO

WUS

FURTHER INFORMATION

Arabidopsis 2010–Establishing regulatory networks in Arabidopsis

Beth Krizek's web site

Elliot Meyerowitz's laboratory

Enrico Coen's laboratory

Floral Genome Project

Maize Genetics and Genomics Database

Martin Yanofsky's laboratory

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

The Arabidopsis Information Resource

The Fletcher Laboratory

Glossary

CHROMATIN IMMUNOPRECIPITATION

A method to determine the in vivo binding of a protein to a DNA sequence.

INFLORESCENCE MERISTEM

The growing shoot tip during the reproductive, flower-producing phase of development.

WHORL

A concentric ring of floral organs.

PERIANTH

The outermost sterile floral organs that include sepals, petals and tepals.

TEPAL

The organ of a flower perianth in which first and second-whorl organs have the same form.

OVULES

The organs within the carpels that contain the embryo sac and develop into seeds.

FLORAL MERISTEM

A group of cells that is initiated by the inflorescence meristem that generates the organs of a flower.

INDETERMINATE

A structure undergoing growth without a defined end.

INFLORESCENCE

A shoot that contains more than one flower.

HOMEOTIC TRANSFORMATION

An event in which an organ of one type assumes the identity of another type within a meristic series.

EUDICOT

A plant that forms two seed leaves during embryogenesis and has three or more pores in its pollen.

MONOCOT

A plant that forms a single seed leaf during embryogenesis.

QUARTET MODEL

This model proposes that tetrameric complexes of MADS proteins determine floral-organ identity in each whorl.

CADASTRAL

A gene activity that defines the boundaries of a region within a flower.

DIFFERENTIAL DISPLAY SCREEN

A molecular method to identify sequences that are enriched in one genotype or set of conditions compared with another.

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Krizek, B., Fletcher, J. Molecular mechanisms of flower development: an armchair guide. Nat Rev Genet 6, 688–698 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1675

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