Mandel M A, Yanofsky M F
Department of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0116, USA.
Nature. 1995 Oct 12;377(6549):522-4. doi: 10.1038/377522a0.
In Arabidopsis, the apical shoot meristem produces lateral meristems that develop into either shoots or flowers. The decision to form flowers instead of shoots is mediated by the action of floral-meristem-identity genes, such as APETALA1 (AP1) and LEAFY (LFY), which specify meristem fate. Here we show that transgenic plants which constitutively express the AP1 gene show transformations of apical and lateral shoots into flowers, and that these plants flower much earlier than wild-type plants. These results indicate that AP1 alone can convert infloresence shoot meristems into floral meristems, and that ectopic AP1 expression can dramatically reduce the time to flowering.
在拟南芥中，顶端分生组织产生侧生分生组织，这些侧生分生组织可发育成枝条或花。形成花而非枝条的决定是由花分生组织特性基因的作用介导的，例如决定分生组织命运的APETALA1（AP1）和LEAFY（LFY）。我们在此表明，组成型表达AP1基因的转基因植物表现出顶端和侧生枝条转变为花的现象，并且这些植物比野生型植物开花早得多。这些结果表明，单独的AP1就能将花序分生组织转化为花分生组织，并且异位表达AP1可显著缩短开花时间。
