Arabidopsis homeotic gene APETALA3 ectopic expression: transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation determine floral organ identity.

APETALA3 (AP3) specifies the development of petals and stamens in the Arabidopsis flower. We constructed a transgenic line, 35S-AP3, that ectopically expresses AP3 under the control of a constitutive promoter. The resulting flowers exhibit a replacement of carpels by stamens and resemble flowers homozygous for the previously described Arabidopsis mutation superman. Although AP3 RNA is detected at high levels throughout the flower and stem in 35S-AP3, AP3 protein is detected at high levels only in the second, third, and fourth floral whorls, demonstrating that AP3 is posttranscriptionally regulated. Ectopic expression of AP3 causes a second floral homeotic gene, PISTILLATA (PI), to function in the fourth whorl of 35S-AP3 flowers. AP3 and PI also activate an AP3 promoter-reporter gene fusion, demonstrating that AP3 positively autoregulates.