Analyzing floral meristem development.

Abstract

Flowers contain the male and female sexual organs that are critical for plant reproduction and survival. Each individual flower is produced from a floral meristem that arises on the flank of the shoot apical meristem and consists of four organ types: sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. Because floral meristems contain a transient stem-cell pool that generates a small number of organs composed of a limited number of cell types, they are excellent model systems for studying stem-cell maintenance and termination, cell fate specification, organ morphogenesis, and pattern formation.