A novel gene that regulates floral meristem activity and controls floral organ number was identified in Arabidopsis and is designated FONl (for FLORAL QRGAN NUMBERl). The fonl mutants exhibit normal vegetative development and produce normal inflorescence meristems and immature flowers before stage 6. fonl flowers become visibly different from wild-type flowers at stage 6, when the third-whorl s...

Tomato is a major crop plant and several mutants have been selected for breeding but also for isolating important genes that regulate flowering and sympodial growth. Besides, current research in developmental biology aims at revealing mechanisms that account for diversity in inflorescence architectures. We therefore found timely to review the current knowledge of the genetic control of flowerin...

A novel gene that regulates floral meristem activity and controls floral organ number was identified in Arabidopsis and is designated FON1 (for FLORAL ORGAN NUMBER1). The fon1 mutants exhibit normal vegetative development and produce normal inflorescence meristems and immature flowers before stage 6. fon1 flowers become visibly different from wild-type flowers at stage 6, when the third-whorl s...

Development of the plant shoot is dependent on the shoot apical meristem. Interactions between KNOX homeodomain transcription factors and the myb domain transcription factor AS1 (ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1) regulate both meristem function as well as leaf patterning. This review summarizes these interactions.

Postembryonic development in higher plants is marked by repetitive organ formation via a self-perpetuating stem cell system, the shoot meristem. Organs are initiated at the shoot meristem periphery, while a central zone harbors the stem cells. Here we show by genetic and molecular analyses that the ZWILLE (ZLL) gene is specifically required to establish the central-peripheral organization of th...

While the shoot apical meristem (SAM) is indirectly responsible for the initiation of all above-ground postembryonic organs, in most plants the vast majority of these organs are directly initiated by lateral meristems. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the lateral meristems include flower meristems (FMs), which form on the flanks of the SAM, and lateral shoot meristems (LSMs), which develop in leaf axil...

Brassinosteroids (BRs) play crucial roles in plant growth and development. Previous studies have shown that BRs promote cell elongation in vegetative organs in several plant species, but their contribution to meristem homeostasis remains unexplored. Our analyses report that both loss- and gain-of-function BR-related mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana have reduced meristem size, indicating that bal...

SEPALLATA (SEP) MADS box transcription factors mediate floral development in association with other regulators. Mutants in five rice (Oryza sativa) SEP genes suggest both redundant and unique functions in panicle branching and floret development. leafy hull sterile1/OsMADS1, from a grass-specific subgroup of LOFSEP genes, is required for specifying a single floret on the spikelet meristem and f...