Regulation of Flower Initiation and Development

花的发生和发育的调控

• 批准号: 1257111
• 负责人: Doris Wagner
• 金额: $ 50.07万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-15 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1257111&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Regulation; Flower; Initiation; Development

In annual plants, which include most crops species, onset of flower formation triggers a transition from biomass and resource production in the leaves and branches to allocation of these resources to the next generation in the seeds formed in the flowers. Both timing of the onset of flower formation and proper flower development are important for plant survival and for agriculture. Understanding the regulation of these processes will allow optimization of the duration of the vegetative phase for biofuel production or food production and optimal elaboration of the reproductive structures for food production. Despite much recent progress in the understanding of the regulation of both of these processes, much remains unknown. The plant specific transcription factor LEAFY (LFY) is a master regulator of the switch to flower formation and of early flower development. This project uses LFY as an entry point and Arabidopsis thaliana as the plant model species to address two key questions that represent major gaps in the understanding of flower development: (1) What are regulators that act downstream of LFY to trigger the switch to flower formation? LFY sets in motion the series of events that result in formation of the first flower. Despite the importance of this developmental switch for plant reproductive fitness and human sustenance, key regulators of this transition that are induced by LFY remain unidentified.The project will take a novel genetic approach to address this question. (2) How do LFY and another important regulator of flower development, the MADS box transcription factor APETALA1 together direct the cell fate changes required to form a floral meristem? It is now widely accepted that LFY and AP1 together orchestrate early flower development. In this aim, insight gained from recent genomic datasets will be harnessed to identify candidate regulators important for early events in flower morphogenesis followed by elucidation of their role in plants. These early events in flower morphogenesis are poorly understood in all plant systems so this investigation should generate novel insight of broad significance.

在包括大多数农作物物种的年度植物中，花形成的发作触发了从叶子和分支中的生物量和资源生产到分配这些资源的过渡到花朵形成的种子中的下一代。开花形成的发作和适当的花朵发育的时机对于植物生存和农业都很重要。了解这些过程的调节将允许优化生物燃料生产或食品生产的营养阶段持续时间，并最佳阐述用于食品生产的生殖结构。尽管了解了这两个过程的调节方面的最新进展，但仍然未知。植物特异性转录因子叶（LFY）是转向花形成和早期花发展的主要调节剂。该项目将LFY用作入口点，拟南芥作为植物模型，以解决两个关键问题，这些问题代表了对花朵发育理解的主要差距：（1）LFY下游作用的调节剂是什么来触发转向花形成？ LFY启动了导致第一花形成的一系列事件。尽管这种发育转变对于植物生殖适应性和人类维持的重要性，但LFY引起的这种过渡的主要调节剂仍然不明显。该项目将采取一种新的遗传方法来解决这个问题。 （2）LFY和另一个重要的花卉发展调节剂，MADS盒转录因子Apetala1共同指导形成花生分生组织所需的细胞命运变化？现在，LFY和AP1共同精心策划了早期的花卉开发，这已经广泛接受。在此目标中，将利用从最近的基因组数据集中获得的洞察力来确定对花形形态发生的早期事件重要的候选调节剂，然后阐明其在植物中的作用。在所有植物系统中，花形形态发生中的这些早期事件对此很鲜为人知，因此该研究应产生有关广泛意义的新见解。