Advertisement
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Arabidopsis gynoecium structure in the wild and in ettin mutants
R.A. Sessions, P.C. Zambryski
Development 1995 121: 1519-1532;

Summary

The gynoecium is the female reproductive structure of flowering plants. Here we present a description of the Arabidopsis thaliana gynoecium at anthesis. The cylindrical organ can be broken down into three longitudinal regions arranged in an apical-basal order: stigma, style, and ovary. Each region can be distinguished histologically and morphologically. The transmitting (pollination) tract is axially positioned along the center of the gynoecium and spans stigma, style and ovary. Histochemistry, scanning electron microscopy and a style-specific reporter gene are used to compare the wild-type pattern of gynoecium cell types and regions, with patterns formed in gynoecia of individuals homozygous for a series of allelic mutations at the ETTIN locus. ettin gynoecia show morphological and histological alterations that appear to result from the merging of apical and basal regions and the development of abaxial into adaxial tissues. These developmental abnormalities result in a reduction of the ovary region, an expansion of the stylar and stigmatic regions, and the abaxial (outward) proliferation of transmitting tract tissue. The alterations in the mutants can be interpreted as resulting from misspecifications of position along the longitudinal and transverse axes during gynoecium development. The results suggest that early patterning events underlie wild-type gynoecium development, and that ETT functions during this early programming.

Reference

    1. Bailey I. W.,
    2. Swamy B. G. L.
    (1951) The conduplicate carpel of the dicotyledons and its initial trends of specialization. Amer. J. Bot 38, 373–379
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
    1. Bowman J. L.,
    2. Smyth D. R.,
    3. Meyerowitz E. M.
    (1989) Genes directing flower development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 1, 37–52
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
    1. Clark S. E.,
    2. Running M. P.,
    3. Meyerowitz E. M.
    (1994) CLAVATA1, a regulator of meristem and flower development in Arabidopsis. Development 119, 397–418
    OpenUrlAbstract
    1. Feder N.,
    2. O'Brien T. P.
    (1968) Plant microtechnique: some principles and new methods. Am. J. Bot 55, 123–142
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
    1. Feldmann K.
    (1991) T-DNA insertion mutagenesis in Arabidopsis: mutational spectrum. Plant J 1, 71–82
    1. Gasser C. S.,
    2. Robinson-Beers K.
    (1993) Pistil development. Plant Cell 5, 1231–1239
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
    1. Hill J. P.,
    2. Lord E. M.
    (1987) Dynamics of pollen tube growth in the wild radish Raphanus raphanistrum (Brassicaceae). II. Morphology, cytochemistry and ultrastructure of transmitting tissues, and paths of pollen tube growth. Am. J. Bot 74, 988–997
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
    1. Hill J. P.,
    2. Lord E. M.
    (1989) Floral development in Arabidopsisthaliana: a comparison of the wild type and the homeotic pistillata mutant. Can. J. Bot 67, 2922–2936
    OpenUrlCrossRef
    1. Kandasamy M. K.,
    2. Nasrallah J. B.,
    3. Nasrallah M. E.
    (1994) Pollen-pistil interactions and developmental regulation of pollen tube growth in Arabidopsis. Development 120, 3405–3418
    OpenUrlAbstract
    1. Mansfield S. G.,
    2. Briarty L. G.,
    3. Erni S.
    (1991). Early embryogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. I. The mature embryo sac. Can. J. Bot 69, 447–460
    OpenUrlCrossRef
    1. Okada K.,
    2. Komaki M. K.,
    3. Shimura Y.
    (1989) Mutational anlysis of pistil structure and development of Arabidopsis thaliana. Cell Diff. Dev 28, 27–38
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
    1. Robinson-Beers K.,
    2. Pruitt R. E.,
    3. Gasser C. S.
    (1992) Ovule development in wild-type Arabidopsis and two female-sterile mutants. Plant Cell 4, 1237–1249
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
    1. Roe J. L.,
    2. Rivin C. J.,
    3. Sessions R. A.,
    4. Feldmann K. A.,
    5. Zambryski P. C.
    (1993) The Tousled gene in A. thaliana encodes a protein kinase homolog that is required for leaf and flower development. Cell 75, 939–950
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
    1. Smyth D. R.,
    2. Bowman J. L.,
    3. Meyerowitz E. M.
    (1990) Early flower development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 2, 755–767
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
    1. Weigel D.,
    2. Meyerowitz E. M.
    (1994) The ABCs of floral homeotic genes. Cell 78, 203–209
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
    1. Wolpert L.
    (1969) Positional information and the spatial pattern of cellular differentiation. J. Theoret. Biol 25, 1–47
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
Back to top

 Download PDF

Email
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Arabidopsis gynoecium structure in the wild and in ettin mutants
R.A. Sessions, P.C. Zambryski
Development 1995 121: 1519-1532;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Alerts

Article navigation

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Advertisement

A new society for regenerative biologists

Kenneth Poss and Elly Tanaka announce the launch of the International Society for Regenerative Biology (ISRB), which will promote research and education in the field of regenerative biology.

Upcoming special issue: call for papers

The Immune System in Development and Regeneration
Guest editors: Florent Ginhoux and Paul Martin
Submission deadline: 1 September 2021
Publication: Spring 2022

The special issue welcomes Review articles as well as Research articles, and will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences.

An interview with Cagney Coomer

Over a virtual chat, we spoke to Cagney Coomer about her experiences in the lab, the classroom and the community centre, and why she thinks outreach and role models are vital to science.

Development presents...

Our successful webinar series continues into 2021, with early-career researchers presenting their papers and a chance to virtually network with the developmental biology community afterwards. Here, Michèle Romanos talks about her new preprint, which mixes experimentation in quail embryos and computational modelling to understand how heterogeneity in a tissue influences cell rate.

Save your spot at our next session:

10 March
Time: 9:00 (GMT)
Chaired by: Thomas Lecuit

Join our mailing list to receive news and updates on the series.