Abstract Detail

Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo)

I do not need a superman when I have a superwoman.

The initial phase of making a flower from the floral meristem (FM) is an art of coordination between different developmental processes. This includes the proper initiation and patterning of the organ primordia, maintaining the size of the FM during organ initiation, termination of the FM activity to ensure the correct number of organ production, and the overlay of the floral organ identity programs onto the primordia so that the boundaries of gene expression domains synchronize precisely with the physical boundaries between the primordia. For a long time, the initiation of primordia and the establishment of organ identity have been studied separately, and only a few genes are thought to bridge these two processes, including the C2H2 transcription factor SUPERMAN (SUP). In Arabidopsis thaliana, SUP defines the boundary of the B-class gene expression domain and regulates the physical boundary and FM termination through auxin biosynthesis. In this study, we investigated the function of the SUP ortholog in Aquilegia coerulea (AqSUP). AqSUP is expressed in a very restricted window during early floral development, in a ring of cells that will become the boundary between the staminode and carpel primordia. AqSUP also appears to define the boundary of the expression domains of B-class genes, likely both AqAP3-1 and AqAP3-2. Silencing of AqSUP expression, however, appears to result in the retraction of B-class gene expressions, which resulted in more carpels in the flower, rather than what was observed in A. thaliana that the B-class gene expression domain invaded into the center of the flower, leading to the production of more stamens. Further investigation into the sequence divergence in the coding and regulatory regions of the genes may cast light on the functional conservation and divergence of SUP in A. thaliana and A. coerulea.

1 - Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave.,, Biolabs Room 1119, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
2 - Harvard Univ., OEB, 16 Divinity Avenue, BL 1119, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States

Keywords:
Aquilegia
SUPERMAN
organ identity
B-class genes.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: EVDV1, Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo)
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Thursday, July 30th, 2020
Time: 11:00 AM
Number: EVDV1005
Abstract ID:404
Candidate for Awards:Katherine Esau Award