Poster: Reproductive Development

Abs # 469: Evo-Devo of carpels: establishing Eschscholzia californica as a basal eudicot model system

Presenter:	Becker, Annette , annette.becker@uni-jena.de
Authors	Becker, Annette  (A)   Theißen, Günter  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Lehrstuhl für Genetik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität

The most important character common to all flowering plants is the carpel, which protectively surrounds the ovules and seeds. The molecular mechanisms of carpel development in Arabidopsis thaliana have been studied quite successfully and many key carpel regulatory genes are known. Angiosperm carpels have evolved into a variety of shapes, some very distinct from A. thaliana. To understand the common molecular processes which govern carpel development in dicotyledonous plants we introduce the basal eudicot plant Eschscholzia californica Cham. (from the poppy family) as a novel system in plant evolutionary biology. A. thaliana and E. californica are quite distantly related but their carpels show considerable similarities. Homologs of important carpel developmental genes of A. thaliana like AGAMOUS, CRABS CLAW, SPATULA and ETTIN have been isolated from E. californica and their expression patterns have been determined by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. Phylogenetic trees including these putative homologs of carpel developmental genes will provide information on the relationships (e.g., orthology) of the homologs from A. thaliana and E. californica. The susceptibility of E. californica to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation allows for functional studies on carpel developmental genes. Using E. californica as a novel model plant will enable a direct comparison of molecular mechanisms of carpel development between a poppy and A. thaliana. We will be able to elucidate how gene networks that direct gynoecium development co-evolve with carpel ontogeny.