Intercellular Signaling During Floral Development

Abstract

Flowers are central to sexual reproduction in higher plants and during evolution floral organs have acquired diverse morphologies to aid in this process. Cells need to communicate to allow floral morphogenesis to happen. The flow of information between plant cells occurs through signaling mechanisms that involve cell surface receptors, cell wall diffusible factors, and plasmodesmata. Transcription factors and small RNAs are now known to move between floral cells to regulate cell identity and morphogenesis. A growing number of cell surface receptor-like kinases have been identified that play a role in intercellular communication in the floral meristem (FM), the specification of the male germline, and the formation of the ovule integuments. In this chapter, we highlight some of the progress that has been made toward an understanding of these types of signaling mechanisms.