title: Flower development: open questions and future directions.
abstract: Almost three decades of genetic and molecular analyses have resulted in detailed insights into many of the processes that take place during flower development and in the identification of a large number of key regulatory genes that control these processes. Despite this impressive progress, many questions about how flower development is controlled in different angiosperm species remain unanswered. In this chapter, we discuss some of these open questions and the experimental strategies with which they could be addressed. Specifically, we focus on the areas of floral meristem development and patterning, floral organ specification and differentiation, as well as on the molecular mechanisms underlying the evolutionary changes that have led to the astounding variations in flower size and architecture among extant and extinct angiosperms.
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, wellmerf@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wellmer
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bowman
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrándiz
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Franks
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Graciet
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gregis
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Jack
authors.forename: Yuling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.forename: Martin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kater
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Elliot M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Meyerowitz
authors.forename: Nathanaël
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Prunet
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Riechmann
mesh_terms: D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D035264:Flowers / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D018519:Meristem / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D008954:Models, Biological