Molecular Control of Flower Development

Abstract

The last decade has been an exciting period in plant molecular biology in general and in molecular studies of flower development in particular. The isolation of the first floral meristem identity and floral homeotic genes of Arabidopsis in the late 1980s—early '80s opened the way to in-depth studies of molecular aspects of floral development (Bowman et al., 1989; Coen et al., 1990; Sommer et al., 1990; Yanofsky et al., 1990). These investigations have led to insights into inflorescence and flower development in higher eudicotyledonous flowering plants, using mainly the predominant model of Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress). The abundance of mutants, a relatively small genome, and easy transformation procedures have made this small plant a primary tool of modern plant biology. Among the ornamentals, Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon) and Petunia hybrida (petunia) are the best-characterized plants at the molecular level. As far as is known, flower development in these species follows genetic principles and mechanisms similar to those in Arabidopsis, although some differences exist in the details at the molecular level, and will be discussed later.

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