Abstract
Carpel is the ovule-bearing female reproductive organ of flowering plants and is required to ensure its protection, an efficient fertilization, and the development of diversified types of fruits, thereby it is a vital element of most food crops. The origin and morphological changes of the carpel are key to the evolution and adaption of angiosperms. Progresses have been made in elucidating the developmental mechanisms of carpel establishment in the model eudicot plant Arabidopsis thaliana, while little and fragmentary information is known in grasses, a family that includes many important crops such as rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and wheat (Triticum aestivum). Here, we highlight recent advances in understanding the mechanisms underlying potential pathways of carpel development in grasses, including carpel identity determination, morphogenesis, and floral meristem determinacy. The known role of transcription factors, hormones, and miRNAs during grass carpel formation is summarized and compared with the extensively studied eudicot model plant Arabidopsis. The genetic and molecular aspects of carpel development that are conserved or diverged between grasses and eudicots are therefore discussed.
Highlights
Carpels are a major defining feature of angiosperms
Physical and genetic interactions between OsMADS1 and the two rice C-class genes are essential for the regulation of carpel identity specification and floral meristem (FM) activity (Hu et al, 2015); 74.67% of osmads1-z osmads3-4 flowers lack inner floral organs, but only have extra glume-like structures, and OSH1 expression is lost at a later stage in this double mutant, suggesting a function of OsMADS1 and OsMADS3 together in repressing FM activity (Figure 3) (Hu et al, 2015)
If sown together with male-sterile lines, an ospid mutant might be a good resource for rice hybrid breeding, which will greatly reduce labor and production costs compared with the traditional method, as any grains produced will be hybrid using sterile lines from both parents (He et al, 2019), whereas in this case, a rescue system will be needed for both parents
Summary
Reviewed by: Toshiro Ito, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Plant Development and EvoDevo, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science. Carpel is the ovule-bearing female reproductive organ of flowering plants and is required to ensure its protection, an efficient fertilization, and the development of diversified types of fruits, thereby it is a vital element of most food crops. Progresses have been made in elucidating the developmental mechanisms of carpel establishment in the model eudicot plant Arabidopsis thaliana, while little and fragmentary information is known in grasses, a family that includes many important crops such as rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and wheat (Triticum aestivum). The known role of transcription factors, hormones, and miRNAs during grass carpel formation is summarized and compared with the extensively studied eudicot model plant Arabidopsis.
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