Petal and stamen development.
Analyses of petal and stamen development are beginning to illuminate the molecular genetic processes that are required to elaborate these organ types. Floral homeotic genes are required to specify certain organ identities, and these functions also are required throughout organogenesis. These genes, either directly or indirectly, presumably control a wide array of tissue- and cell-type-specific differentiation processes. At least part of this repertoire seems to include the regulation of cell proliferation, coupling the specification of organ identity with changes in growth dynamics in different regions of the developing flower. Furthermore, cells have an enormous amount of developmental plasticity, which means that they have to be able to integrate multiple sources of information as they terminally differentiate. Some of the identified inputs include the position of the cell in the developing organ, the status of gene expression and epigenetic information, and environmental signals. How this information is disseminated between cells is largely unknown. Not only do individual cells need to respond to this information, but fields of cells must coordinate their differentiation to form a functionally complex structure. The challenge that is before us is to understand how this plasticity of response is regulated to give a reproducible and species-specific pattern of differentiated tissues.
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Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D019441:Plant Epidermis / Q000166:cytology; D018514:Plant Structures / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics