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Abnormal Anatomy of Developing Flowers
Abnormal Anatomy of Developing Flowers
A scanning electron micrograph showing the abnormal anatomy of a group of developing flowers in an auxin-deficient wei8 tar2 double mutant plant. The progression of flower development can be inferred from the simultaneous observation of flower buds of different ages (older in the periphery and younger in the middle of the image).
The apparently random position of organ initiation in the mutant flower buds--as well as the irregular morphology of the forming organs--greatly contrasts with the precise developmental patterns and the well-defined symmetry of wild-type flowers. The aberrant developmental programs observed in the wei8 tar2 double mutants illustrate the important role of the newly discovered indole-3-pyruvic acid pathway of auxin production in plant development.
This research was supported by National Science Foundation grant MCB 05-19869 and MCB 03-15992. (Date of Image: 2007 )
Credit: Image by Valerie Knowlton and Clara Alonso-Stepanova; Jose M. Alonso, Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University
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