Regulation of flowering and flower development

Plants have the amazing capacity to produce new organs throughout their entire life. These organs are derived from populations of pluripotent stem cells called meristems that give rise to the root and shoot. During the vegetative phase of development, the growing tip of the plant, the so-called shoot apical meristem (SAM), initiates leaves at its flanks. However, at a specific stage in its life cycle, the SAM undergoes a marked phase transition and becomes an inflorescence meristem that produces floral meristems that give rise to the four floral organs - sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels.

Over the last decades, genetic and molecular approaches have identified an intricate network of transcription factors that control the floral transition and flower development. However, despite the identification of many key players, how they interact exactly to achieve the temporal and spatial specificity necessary for the timely and accurate formation of flowers is still far from understood.

In this project we investigate the joined role of two transcription factors, LEAFY and FD, in controlling the transition to flowering and flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana using a combination of molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches.