Development of the Floral Organs

Abstract

AbstractIt is becoming clear that flower development is a cascade, with flowering time integrators activating floral meristem identity genes which activate floral organ identity genes. The floral organ identity genes themselves encode transcription factors, and are predicted to activate the many structural genes required to form the new organs, as well as further regulatory genes controlling processes such as pigment synthesis. The expression patterns of the floral organ identity genes determine the positions of developing organs (in the ABC model of flower development), and those expression patterns are themselves determined in part by cadastral genes (genes whose function is to specify the domain of expression of other genes). Floral organ identity genes act together as transcriptional complexes to ensure expression of the correct structural genes in each whorl of the developing flower.