Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Trends Genet. 2010 Dec;26(12):519-27. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2010.09.001. Epub 2010 Oct 13.
The onset of flower formation is a key regulatory event during the life cycle of angiosperm plants, which marks the beginning of the reproductive phase of development. It has been shown that floral initiation is under tight genetic control, and deciphering the underlying molecular mechanisms has been a main area of interest in plant biology for the past two decades. Here, we provide an overview of the developmental and genetic processes that occur during floral initiation. We further review recent studies that have led to the genome-wide identification of target genes of key floral regulators and discuss how they have contributed to an in-depth understanding of the gene regulatory networks controlling early flower development. We focus especially on a master regulator of floral initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana APETALA1 (AP1), but also outline what is known about the AP1 network in other plant species and the evolutionary implications.
花的形成是被子植物生命周期中的一个关键调控事件，标志着发育的生殖阶段的开始。已经表明，花的起始受严格的遗传控制，解析潜在的分子机制是过去二十年来植物生物学的主要研究领域。在这里，我们提供了一个关于花起始过程中的发育和遗传过程的概述。我们进一步回顾了最近的研究，这些研究导致了关键花调控因子的靶基因的全基因组鉴定，并讨论了它们如何有助于深入了解控制早期花发育的基因调控网络。我们特别关注拟南芥中花起始的主调控因子 APETALA1(AP1)，但也概述了在其他植物物种中 AP1 网络的已知情况及其进化意义。
