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Published May 1995 | public
Journal Article

UFO: an Arabidopsis gene involved in both floral meristem and floral organ development

Abstract

We describe the role of the UNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS (UFO) gene in Arabidopsis floral development based on a genetic and molecular characterization of the phenotypes of nine ufo alleles. UFO is required for the proper identity of the floral meristem and acts in three different aspects of the process that distinguishes flowers from shoots. UFO is involved in establishing the whorled pattern of floral organs, controlling the determinacy of the floral meristem, and activating the APETALA3 and PISTILLATA genes required for petal and stamen identity. In many respects, UFO acts in a manner similar to LEAFY, but the ufo mutant phenotype also suggests an additional role for UFO in defining boundaries within the floral primordia or controlling cell proliferation during floral organ growth. Finally, genetic interactions that prevent flower formation and lead to the generation of filamentous structures implicate UFO as a member of a new, large, and diverse class of genes in Arabidopsis necessary for flower formation.

Additional Information

© 1995 American Society of Plant Biologists. Received December 21, 1994; accepted March 21, 1995. We thank Kiyotaka Okada for fl54 seed and Detlef Weigel for anti-LFY antiserum and ap2-7 lfy-5 seed. We thank the following people for ufo alleles: Tom Jack, George Fox, Gary Drews, David Smyth, John Alvarez, Gerd Jürgens, Ulrike Mayer, Detlef Weigel, Scott Poethig, Mark Wilkinson, and George Haughn. We acknowledge Tom Jack and Detlef Weigel for preliminary genetic analysis of UFO. We thank Pat Koen of the Electron Microscope Facility at California Institute of Technology for technical advice and Michael Frolich for enlightening discussions on filamentous structures. We are grateful to Caren Chang, Tom Jack, Leslie Sieburth, Detlef Weigel, and the members of our laboratory for helpful comments on this manuscript. J.Z.L. was supported by National lnstitutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship No. GM15132. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. MCB9204839 and United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund Grant No. IS-1988-91 to E.M.M.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023