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Published April 1, 1996 | Published
Journal Article Open

Mutations in the PERIANTHIA gene of Arabidopsis specifically alter floral organ number and initiation pattern

Abstract

An open question in developmental biology is how groups of dividing cells can generate specific numbers of segments or organs. We describe the phenotypic effects of mutations in PERIANTHIA, a gene specifically required for floral organ patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana. Most wild-type Arabidopsis flowers have 4 sepals, 4 petals, 6 stamens, and 2 carpels. Flowers of perianthia mutant plants most commonly show a pentamerous pattern of 5 sepals, 5 petals 5 stamens, and 2 carpels. This pattern is characteristic of flowers in a number of plant families, but not in the family Brassicaceae, which includes Arabidopsis. Unlike previously described mutations affecting floral organ number, perianthia does not appear to affect apical or floral meristem sizes, nor is any other aspect of vegetative or floral development severely affected. Floral organs in perianthia arise in a regular, stereotypical pattern similar to that in distantly related species with pentamerous flowers. Genetic analysis shows that PERIANTHIA acts downstream of the floral meristem identity genes and independently of the floral meristem size and floral organ identity genes in establishing floral organ initiation patterns. Thus PERIANTHIA acts in a previously unidentified process required for organ patterning in Arabidopsis flowers.

Additional Information

© 1996 Company of Biologists Limited. Accepted 18 January 1996. We thank Pat Koen for technical assistance on scanning electron microscopy, Steven E. Clark for advice, and Xuemei Chen, Jennifer Fletcher, Jian Hua, Beth Krizek, Zhongchi Liu, Jose Luis Reichmann, Robert Sablowski, Hajime Sakai, Tom Tubman, Doris Wagner, and Robert Williams for discussions and critical review of the manuscript. We especially thank Kenneth A. Feldmann for generating the T-DNA mutant lines and for the opportunity to screen them for flower mutants. This work was supported by NSF grant MCB-9204839 to E. M. M. M. P. R. was a Howard Hughes predoctoral fellow.

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August 22, 2023
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