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Front Plant Sci 2021 16;12:635500. Epub 2021 Feb 16.

Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Regional Modern Agriculture & Environmental Protection, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

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 , while little and fragmentary information is known in grasses, a family that includes many important crops such as rice (), maize (), barley (), and wheat (). Read More

Front Plant Sci 2021 15;12:636749. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States.

The CLAVATA pathway controls meristem size during inflorescence development in both eudicots and grasses, and is initiated by peptide ligands encoded by /-related () genes. While CLV3 controls all shoot meristems in , evidence from cereal grasses indicates that different meristem types are regulated by different CLE peptides. The rice peptide FON2 primarily controls the size of the floral meristem, whereas the orthologous peptides CLE7 and CLE14 in maize have their most dramatic effects on inflorescence and branch meristems, hinting at diversification among CLE responses in the grasses. Read More

Front Plant Sci 2021 15;12:585139. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Laboratorio de Genética Molecular, Epigenética, Desarrollo y Evolución de Plantas, Departamento de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.

The qualitative model presented in this work recovers the onset of the four fields that correspond to those of each floral organ whorl of flower, suggesting a mechanism for the generation of the positional information required for the differential expression of the A, B, and C identity genes according to the ABC model for organ determination during early stages of flower development. Our model integrates a previous model for the emergence of WUS pattern in the floral meristem, and shows that this pre-pattern is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the posterior information of the four fields predicted by the ABC model. Furthermore, our model predicts that LFY diffusion along the L1 layer of cells is not a necessary condition for the patterning of the floral meristem. Read More

Curr Opin Plant Biol 2021 Feb 25;61:102009. Epub 2021 Feb 25.

Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5, Takayama, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192, Japan. Electronic address:

Tissue-specific transcription factors allow cells to specify new fates by exerting control over gene regulatory networks and the epigenetic landscape of a cell. However, our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions is limited. In Arabidopsis, the MADS-box transcription factor AGAMOUS (AG) plays a central role in regulating reproductive organ identity and meristem determinacy during flower development. Read More

Front Cell Dev Biol 2021 9;9:634218. Epub 2021 Feb 9.

State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.

Floral organ development is fundamental to sexual reproduction in angiosperms. Many key floral regulators (most of which are transcription factors) have been identified and shown to modulate floral meristem determinacy and floral organ identity, but not much is known about the regulation of floral organ growth, which is a critical process by which organs to achieve appropriate morphologies and fulfill their functions. Spatial and temporal control of anisotropic cell expansion following initial cell proliferation is important for organ growth. Read More