The homeotic gene APETALA3 of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a MADS box and is expressed in petals and stamens
Abstract
Mutations in the APETALA3 (AP3) gene of A. thaliana result in homeotic transformations of petals to sepals and stamens to carpels. We have cloned the AP3 gene from Arabidopsis based on its homology to the homeotic flower gene deficiens (DEFA) from the distantly related plant Antirrhinum majus. The sequence of four ap3 mutant alleles and genetic mapping analysis prove that the DEFA homolog is AP3. Like several other plant homeotic genes, the AP3 gene contains a MADS box and likely acts as a transcription factor. The region-specific spatial expression pattern of AP3 rules out certain types of sequential models of flower development and argues in favor of a spatial model based on positional information. Since DEFA and AP3 have very similar protein products, mutant phenotypes, and spatial expression patterns, it is likely that these genes are cognate homologs.
Additional Information
© 1992 Cell Press. Received 23 September 1991, Revised 22 November 1991. We thank Zsuzsanna Schwarz-Sommer for the DEFA cDNA clone, Tony Bleecker for the ap3-3 allele, Detlef Weigel for the ap3-4 and ap3-5alleles, and Pat Koen of the Caltech Electron Microscopy facility for help with the scanning electron microscope. We also thank John Bowman, Usha Vijayraghavan, and Art DeJohn for preparing the DNA for the AP3 RFLP mapping, and members of the Meyerowitz lab for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant DCB 8403439 (E.M.M.). T.J. is supported by NIH postdoctoral fellowship GM 13667-02 and L.L.B. by NIH training grant 5T32-GM07616. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 72835
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161214-153915962
- DCB-8403439
- NSF
- GM-13667-02
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 5T32-GM07616
- NIH Predoctoral Fellowship
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2016-12-15Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field