Plant Reproductive Genomics at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference

Exciting advances in our understanding of plant reproductive biology are being spurred both by new research on established model systems and by the emergence of new models. Moreover, comparative analyses are placing knowledge derived from each of these systems into an evolutionary framework and thus providing insights into the processes responsible for the diversity of forms we see today. The number of species with large EST sets for floral transcriptomes is growing rapidly (Figure 1; http://pgn.cornell.edu/) and expression profiling of tagged genes is under way for many of these species. While there are still few tractable systems for experimental investigations of gene function, the development and refinement of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS; reviewed in Benedito et al., 2004; Lu et al., 2004; Robertson, 2004) and targeting-induced local lesions genomes (TILLING; reviewed in Henikoff et al., 2004; Stemple, 2004) promise to expand the application of reverse genetics to non-model species. Experimental analysis in a broader range of plant lineages (Figure 1), including the basal-most eudicot lineages (Ranunculales), non-grass monocots, magnoliids and the basal-most angiosperm lineages (Amborellaceae and Nymphaeaceae; see Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, 2003), will help us understand how gene function has evolved since the most recent common ancestor of Arabidopsis and grain models (rice, maize, wheat and others) and all angiosperms. The Plant Reproductive Genomics Workshop at the Plant Animal Genome Conference was organized to present recent advances in our comprehension of floral development and discuss how new genomic resources for an expanding set of plant species is continuing to deepen this understanding. The main topics covered in the workshop this year were floral diversity, variations of the classical ABC model of floral development, genetic analysis of reproductive traits, the regulation of flowering time and the origin and characterization of the floral transcriptome in the most recent common ancestor of all extant angiosperms. These topics were covered by 13 speakers in this workshop and by a number of speakers in other workshops at PAG XIII. The papers presented in the Plant Reproductive Genomics Workshop will be included in a symposium volume to be published early next year in the Advances in Botanical