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Competence to Respond to Floral Inductive Signals Requires the Homeobox Genes PENNYWISE and POUND-FOOLISH

2004; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cub.2004.04.032

1879-0445

Harley M. S. Smith, Bruce Campbell, Sarah Hake,

Plant Parasitism and Resistance

The transition from vegetative to reproductive development establishes new growth patterns required for flowering. This switch is controlled by environmental and/or intrinsic developmental cues that converge at the shoot apical meristem (SAM) [1Colasanti J Sundaresan V Florigen' enters the molecular age long-distance signals that cause plants to flower.Trends Biochem. Sci. 2000; 25: 236-240Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (65) Google Scholar, 2Mouradov A Cremer F Coupland G Control of flowering time interacting pathways as a basis for diversity.Plant Cell. 2002; 14: S111-S130PubMed Google Scholar, 3Simpson G.G Dean C Arabidopsis, the Rosetta stone of flowering time?.Science. 2002; 296: 285-289Crossref PubMed Scopus (758) Google Scholar, 4Shannon S Meeks-Wagner D.R Genetic interactions that regulate inflorescence development in Arabidopsis.Plant Cell. 1993; 5: 639-655PubMed Google Scholar]. During this developmental transition, floral inductive signals cause the vegetative meristem to undergo morphological changes that are essential for flowering [5Bernier G The control of floral evocation and morphogenesis.Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. 1988; 39: 175-219Crossref Google Scholar, 6Lyndon R.F The Shoot Apical Meristem; Its Growth and Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1998Google Scholar]. Arabidopsis plants containing null mutations in two paralogous BEL1-like (BELL) homeobox genes, PENNYWISE (PNY) and POUND-FOOLISH (PNF), disrupt the transition from vegetative to reproductive development. These double mutants are completely unable to flower even though the SAM displays morphological and molecular changes that are consistent with having received floral inductive signals. These studies establish a link between the competence to receive floral inductive signals and restructuring of the SAM during floral evocation.