Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Genome Sequencing & ESTs
            

THE FLORAL GENOME PROJECT

¹ Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA

² Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

³ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0344, USA

⁴ Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, 32611, USA

⁵ Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

Variations in floral structure are of major evolutionary and economic importance, impacting various plant processes such as pollination and gene flow, fruit production, and seed dispersal. Despite the central importance of the flower, and huge strides made in understanding the molecular genetic basis of flower development in Arabidopsis and other model species, many fundamental questions remain. Major questions include: How did flowers originate? How much of the genetic program for flower development was present in the most ancestral flowers, and how has that program diversified? What genes are responsible for flower development throughout the flowering plants, and what are the sources of variation in flower structure throughout plants? THE FLORAL GENOME PROJECT is investigating the origin, conservation, and diversification of the genetic architecture of the flower. The project is based on an Evolutionary Genomic analysis of diverse 'exemplars' which include the basal angiosperm groups (water-lilies, tulip poplar, avocado, ancient monocots, etc.) where most flower diversity is found, plus key dicot lineage and gymnosperm outgroups. Analysis of these basal angiosperms, plus key basal lineages of monocots and eudicots and gymnosperms will allow the first inferences of ancestral floral gene sets for angiosperms, monocots, dicots, and other significant lineages. This research is supported through a NSF Plant Genome Research grant.