The shapes of flowers and their organization into branching systems, called inflorescences, dictate much of plant diversity. Recent studies have identified key regulators in this diversity, revealing that the inflorescence architecture of Solanaceous species depends on sequential and temporal expression of the WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX (WOX) gene EVERGREEN (EVG)/ COMPOUND INFLORESCENCE (S) and t...

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...

Both insufficient and excessive male inflorescence size leads to a reduction in maize yield. Knowledge of the genetic architecture of male inflorescence is essential to achieve the optimum inflorescence size for maize breeding. In this study, we used approximately eight thousand inbreds, including both linkage populations and association populations, to dissect the genetic architecture of male ...

Genetic control of grass inflorescence architecture is critical given that cereal seeds provide most of the world's food. Seeds are borne on axillary branches, which arise from groups of stem cells in axils of leaves and whose branching patterns dictate most of the variation in plant form. Normal maize (Zea mays) ears are unbranched, and tassels have long branches only at their base. The ramosa...

Single-phase transition during flowering has been suggested by Hempel and Feldman (1994) [Planta 192: 276]. When early flowering ecotypes of Arabidopsis were microscopically observed, a long day signal simultaneously induced the acropetal (bottom to top) production of flower primordia and the basipetal (top to bottom) differentiation of paraclades (axillary flowering shoots) from the axils of p...

A major aspect of postembryonic plant development is the formation of secondary axes of growth: vegetative branches, inflorescence branches, or flowers. The first step in side-shoot development is the establishment of lateral meristems in the axils of leaves. GRAS-, MYB-, and bHLH-type transcription factors act as key regulators of early steps in this process. The REVOLUTA subfamily of HD-ZIP t...

Summary Tephrosia kindiana , a new plant species from Guinea, is described and illustrated. It shrub 90 – 120 cm tall, multi-stemmed the base. The leaves have 5 13 oblanceolate leaflets; inflorescence consists of solitary flowers in leaf axils, or 2 3-flowered fascicles; are orange 24 26 mm long. occurs wooded grassland on sandstone plateaus at 300 420 m elevation. Three localities known, up to...