* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Axioms and axes in leaf formation? Andrew Hudson
Gene therapy wikipedia , lookup
Long non-coding RNA wikipedia , lookup
X-inactivation wikipedia , lookup
Epigenetics of diabetes Type 2 wikipedia , lookup
Epigenetics in stem-cell differentiation wikipedia , lookup
History of genetic engineering wikipedia , lookup
Ridge (biology) wikipedia , lookup
Biology and consumer behaviour wikipedia , lookup
Genome evolution wikipedia , lookup
Oncogenomics wikipedia , lookup
Minimal genome wikipedia , lookup
Genomic imprinting wikipedia , lookup
Point mutation wikipedia , lookup
Nutriepigenomics wikipedia , lookup
Therapeutic gene modulation wikipedia , lookup
Vectors in gene therapy wikipedia , lookup
Genome (book) wikipedia , lookup
Gene therapy of the human retina wikipedia , lookup
Gene expression programming wikipedia , lookup
Polycomb Group Proteins and Cancer wikipedia , lookup
Microevolution wikipedia , lookup
Epigenetics of human development wikipedia , lookup
Artificial gene synthesis wikipedia , lookup
Designer baby wikipedia , lookup
Site-specific recombinase technology wikipedia , lookup
Gene expression profiling wikipedia , lookup
pb2104.qxd 12/06/1999 2:33 PM Page 56 56 Axioms and axes in leaf formation? Andrew Hudson Formation of leaves and floral organs involves down-regulation of meristem-specific homeobox genes, and de novo expression of genes for organ identity, growth and patterning. Genes required for all these aspects of organ formation have been identified. The challenge now is to establish how they interact to direct organogenesis. Addresses Division of Biological Sciences, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, The University of Edinburgh, Daniel Rutherford Building, King’s Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JH, UK; e-mail: [email protected] Current Opinion in Plant Biology 1999, 2:56–60 http://biomednet.com/elecref/1369526600200056 © Elsevier Science Ltd ISSN 1369-5266 Abbreviation SAM shoot apical meristem Introduction Leaves, and related floral organs, arise from groups of initial cells within the peripheral zone of the shoot apical meristem (SAM) or floral meristem (Figure 1). Leaf initials, numbering less than 50 in Arabidopsis [1,2] and over 200 in maize [3], follow a different developmental fate to SAM cells or initials of the stem and form two new axes of asymmetry — proximodistal and dorsoventral. Here, I review recent evidence for the genetic control of organ, as opposed to meristem, identity and for specification and elaboration of proximodistal and dorsoventral organ axes. Specification of organ identity Meristematic cells at the shoot apex are characterised by expression of knox genes (a family of homeobox genes including the knotted1 gene of maize) and, conversely, loss of knox gene expression has provided a faithful marker for organ fate. The Arabidopsis knox gene SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) [4] is required for the formation and maintenance of a functional SAM [4–7], consistent with a role in specifying meristem identity. STM transcripts are detectable in SAM cells, but not in those which will form the next leaf primordium (P0 initials) [4], suggesting that the P0 cells have lost meristem identity and assumed that of organ, although they have yet to show morphological signs of organ formation. Two genes, AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) and PHANTASTICA (PHAN), that might specify organ identity have been identified in Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum, respectively. ANT encodes a putative transcription factor of the AP2-like family [8,9,10] and is expressed in the P0 initials and older primordia of leaves and floral organs. ant mutants produce fewer floral organs suggesting the gene is required for organ identity or initiation. Mutations in the related floral homeotic gene AP2, which is required to specify the identity of sepals and petals in the outer two whorls of the flower, also cause similar reductions in floral organ number [10]. This has been attributed to ectopic expression of a second homeotic gene, AGAMOUS (AG) [11], which is normally confined to the inner two floral whorls, because loss of AG activity restores normal organ number to ap2 mutants. Ectopic AG expression is also partly responsible for the homeotic effects on organ identity in the outer two whorls of ap2 mutants. As ant mutants show no floral homeotic phenotypes characteristic of ectopic AG expression, ANT and AP2 functions appear unlikely to overlap in repressing AG. ant:ap2 double mutants, however, show a more severe organ loss phenotype than either single mutant [9] suggesting that ANT and AP2 do share roles in organ formation. Although ANT is expressed in leaf and cotyledon initials, it is not required for normal leaf development, presumably because of the activity of other, independently expressed genes. The PHAN gene of Antirrhinum encodes a MYB-like transcription factor [12••] and its expression is confined to organs from before primordium initiation, in a pattern reciprocal to that of an Antirrhinum STM gene. Because the phan mutant phenotype is conditional on temperature, it was possible to demonstrate a requirement for PHAN in initiation of all lateral organs (i.e. elaboration of the proximodistal axis) and for dorsoventral asymmetry in leaves and petals. These findings suggest that the primary role of PHAN is to specify lateral organ identity and that elaboration of proximodistal and dorsoventral axes is a consequence of this. It also appears that organ initials or primordia produce a PHAN-dependant signal, of unknown identity, required to maintain SAM activity because phan mutant meristems become quiescent at restrictive temperatures. A similar pleiotropic effect on organ formation and SAM activity results from mutations in the REVOLUTA and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT genes of Arabidopsis [13,14], supporting the view that SAM function and organ formation are inter-dependent. This contrasts with the phenotypes of mgoun (mgo1 or mgo2) mutants of Arabidopsis, however, which produce fewer leaves and floral organs [15] and accumulate more cells in the peripheral zone of the SAM from which organs would normally form [16•] — suggesting that MGO1 and MGO2 are required for organ fate but not meristem activity. One explanation for the difference in the effects of these mutations would be that the MGO genes are required only for organ formation and act downstream of genes like PHAN that specify organ fate and are needed for signalling. Isolation of the MGO loci should allow this to be tested. It remains to be determined whether organ-specific genes are required to repress meristem-specific knox genes (or pb2104.qxd 12/06/1999 2:33 PM Page 57 Axioms and axes in leaf formation? Hudson 57 Figure 1 P1 P1 P1 Dorsal PO P1 PO P1 P2 PO Ventral Lateral PO P2 P2 P3 P2 P3 Distal Proximal Current Opinion in Plant Biology (Formation of leaves at the shoot apical meristem. Leaves develop from groups of initial cells within the flanks of the shoot apical meristem (SAM). These form a primordium growing away from the SAM, elaborating its proximodistal axis. The primordia of monocots are usually flattened at emergence, those of dicots grow laterally to become flattened in a plane perpendicular to the dorsoventral axis of the leaf soon after emergence. vice versa), or whether the two classes of genes respond independently to an existing pre-pattern in the apex. Because such a pre-pattern would be a major determinant of organ position (phyllotaxy), its nature has been the source of much speculation (e.g. [17,18]). Indirect evidence suggests that meristem-specific knox genes might interact with genes specifying organ identity. STM appears necessary to prevent organ fate in the SAM because reduced activity in weak stm mutants or in zwille (zll) mutants unable to maintain STM expression leads to formation of ectopic leaves ([6,7,19]; zll is allelic to pinhead [20]). Loss-of-function mutations in the STM-like knotted1 (kn1) gene of maize have less severe effects (presumably due to redundancy of kn1) but lead to formation of ectopic leaves and carpels [21•], suggesting a similar role in repressing organ formation. Down-regulation of STM, however, is also seen in initials that will subsequently form floral meristems indicating that it is not sufficient for organ identity in all contexts (see [15] for example). Conversely, PHAN might be sufficient to repress STM (their expression domains are complementary), although the same cannot be true of ANT which is expressed with STM in some cells of the embryo [22•], and probably also in vascular initials in the stem. Figure 2 Ectopic knox gene expression alters proximodistal pattern in leaves. (a) The wild-type maize leaf consists of sheath tissue (s) at the base, proximal to the stem, and blade tissue (b) distally. The ligule (lg) and auricle (a) form at the blade/sheath boundary. Ectopic expression of one of several knox genes shift the blade/sheath boundary distally, producing a mutant phenotype similar to that conditioned by the dominant Gnarley1-R mutant shown in (b). (c) The petiole, stipules and axillary meristem develop proximally in the wild-type Arabidopsis leaf. Ectopic expression of the knox gene KNAT1 from the constitutive 35S promoter causes lobing of leaves and these proximal identities to be expressed more distally at the base of the lobes (d). Pictures kindly provided by Sarah Hake. Further evidence for organ-specific repression of the knox genes kn1, rough sheath1 (rs1) and liguleless3 (lg3) is provided by the rough sheath2 (rs2) mutant of maize which ectopically accumulates RS1 protein in leaf primordia from the earliest stage after initiation (P1), and kn1, rs1 and lg3 transcripts in older leaves [23••]. Although rs2 is necessary for repression of knox expression in leaf primordia, it does not appear to be required for setting the early expression pattern of RS1 or KN1, because these proteins are reduced as normal in P0 leaf initials of strong rs2 mutants. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that regulation of knox genes is complex and may occur at the levels of both transcription and RNA stability [24,25••]. pb2104.qxd 12/06/1999 2:33 PM 58 Page 58 Growth and development Regulation also appears differs between parts of the maize leaf. In wild-type initials, Kn1 mRNA and protein is first lost from P0 initial cells that will form the centre of the leaf, and subsequently from cells that will form the leaf margins. Down-regulation of Kn1 in marginal initials requires the activity of narrow sheath and leaf bladeless1 genes [26,27•], whereas that in the central initials does not. Recent isolation of the maize terminal ear1 (te1) gene of maize has identified an additional class of gene with a role in leaf initiation [28•]. Loss of te1 function causes increased leaf production at ectopic positions, suggesting te1 is required to repress leaf identity. te1 mRNA is confined to cells opposite P0 initials, consistent with this role, although these cells will later assume identities as marginal leaf initials and therefore te1 is not sufficient to prevent leaf identity. TE1 protein contains RNA binding motifs suggesting a role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Formation of the proximodistal organ axis The first morphological sign of proximodistal axis formation is initiation of primordium growing away from the SAM and stem axis and, therefore, the proximodistal axis appears to be specified in organ initials within the meristem. One consequence of this is that mutations which prevent specification or early elaboration of the proximodistal axis may disrupt initiation of primordia and, therefore, be difficult to distinguish phenotypically from those affecting organ identity. Gain-of-function phenotypes, however, implicate knox genes in proximodistal axis formation. The maize leaf consists of sheath tissue proximal to the stem and blade tissue distally (Figure 2). This pattern is specified early in development because the blade/sheath boundary, at which the auricle and ligule will form, is apparent in the second youngest primordium (P2) [29]. Gain-of-function mutations in a number of knox genes including kn1 and rs1 [30,31] cause expression in leaves from stage P1 and result in distal cells developing with more proximal identities (e.g. sheath in place of blade, Figure 2). Freeling and co-workers interpret this as evidence that positional values along the proximal–distal axis reflect the developmental age of cells and that the competency of cells to make different tissues changes as they mature. Proximal cells of the wild-type leaf, therefore, assume different fates to distal ones because they mature much later. As knox gene expression is usually confined to the most immature stage of development — that of SAM cells — ectopic expression in leaves is proposed to slow maturation and result in acquisition of more proximal fates [32]. Analysis of marked clones of cells carrying a ligueless3 (Lg3) gain-of-function mutation (which, like similar mutations in knl and rsl, is reported to result in ectopic expression in leaves) has been used to support this hypothesis [33•]. If lg3 expression were responsible for specifying positional information, mutant clones might have been expected to express a more distal identity uniformly; however, this was not observed. Clones retain proximodistal pattern (although this is displaced distally relative to surrounding wild-type tissue), suggesting that lg3 expression allows cells to respond to positional information, and consistent with reduction, rather than prevention of maturation. Large mutant clones, established early in development, also showed more severe distal to proximal conversions than smaller clones established later, as would be expected to result from longer exposure to a maturation inhibitor; however, the alternative view — that knox genes are involved in specifying positional information — cannot be ruled out. Knox genes might be needed for signals that specify proximal identity in organ initials closest to their domain of expression in the wild-type SAM and ectopic expression could signal proximal cell fate at more distal positions in the leaf. The incomplete loss of proximodistal pattern in Lg3-expressing clones could reflect the requirement for other signals in proximodistal patterning, which remains unaffected in Lg3 mutant cells. This view, in which knox genes are responsible for proximodistal signals, is consistent with the finding that Kn1, Rs1 and Lg3 gain-of-function mutations act non cell-autonomously to influence cell fate [31,33•,34•]. Similar proximodistal shifts in leaf pattern result from ectopic expression of the knox gene KNAT1 in the dicot Arabidopsis [24], resulting in formation of leaf lobes with ectopic stipules and SAMs at their bases (Figure 2). Because stipules and axillary SAMs are normally associated with the most proximal part of the wild-type leaf, this phenotype implies a shift of proximal identity distally and suggests that knox genes also have a role in proximodistal patterning of dicot leaves. Although the compound leaf of tomato differs from that of simple-leaved plants in retaining knox gene expression in developing leaf primordia, overexpression of knox genes in transgenic plants or spontaneous mutants also confers proximal identity (that of branching rachis) to more distal parts, resulting in a more highly branched structure [35,36•,37•]. Specification of the dorsoventral organ axis Leaves are generally flattened perpendicular to their dorsoventral axis. This flattening is usually the first morphological indication of dorsoventral polarity within organs, although dorsoventral patterning of tissues appears later (e.g. palisade cells differentiate dorsally and spongy mesophyll ventrally in most dicot leaves). In monocots such as maize, the leaf primordium is flat at emergence, suggesting that dorsoventral polarity of initials is specified within the SAM. Even though dicot leaves usually become flattened as primordia grow laterally after emergence, evidence from surgical studies [38] suggests that their dorsoventral polarity is also specified within the SAM. In the dicot Antirrhinum, the PHAN gene is required for dorsal cell identity in leaf and petal initials as shown by pb2104.qxd 12/06/1999 2:33 PM Page 59 Axioms and axes in leaf formation? Hudson 59 phan mutant organs, which can develop with only ventral cell types. PHAN is not sufficient for this identity, however, because it is also transcribed in initials that develop with ventral identities [12]. Because phan mutant leaves, which are mosaics of normal dorsal and ectopic ventral tissues, form ectopic leaf blades at dorsal ventral boundaries, interaction between dorsal and ventral initial cells was proposed to be responsible for the lateral growth which flattens the wild-type leaf blade [39]. Mutations, such as lam-1 in tobacco [40], that prevent lateral growth of the primordium but do not affect dorsoventrality may, therefore, identify genes downstream of dorsoventral interactions required for growth. In Arabidopsis, loss of ARGONAUTE1 (AGO1) activity also leads to production of narrow, ventralised organs, suggesting a similar role in dorsal cell identity [41••]. AGO1 encodes a ZWILLE-like protein of unknown function that is conserved in multicellular organisms and likely to be located in the cytosol. Although AGO1, which encodes a ZLL-like protein of unknown biochemical function, is transcribed in various tissues, overexpression caused ventral cells to assume dorsal fates, indicating that it is sufficient for this fate. tials, but is also required for identity of leaf margin cells [26,44]. Because marginal cell types are formed in lb1 mutants, the relationship between ns and lb1 activities is currently unclear. A similar gain of dorsal identity occurs in the Phabulosa1D (Phab-1D) mutant of Arabidopsis [42••]. The Phab-1D mutation is semi-dominant and, therefore, the mutant phenotype might also result from ectopic ventral expression of gene sufficient for dorsal identity. In both Phab-1D and ago mutants, ectopic lateral growth occurs at ectopic dorsoventral boundaries, supporting the view that interaction between cells with these identities is responsible for flattening of organs. Phab-1D mutants form axillary meristems ventrally at the boundary between ectopic dorsal tissues and the stem, suggesting that dorsal organ identity might be required for normal axillary meristem formation. In maize, recessive leaf bladeless1 (lb1) mutations result in variable loss of dorsal identity in leaves [27•], whereas the dominant Lax midrib1-O mutation results in gain of dorsal identity by ventral cells [43]. The lb1 and Lxm1-O mutations, therefore, may identify genes required and sufficient for dorsal identity, respectively. As in dicots, ectopic leaf blades are produced by cell divisions at the boundaries between normal dorsal cells and ectopic ventral of primordia of these mutants suggesting that cell divisions that produce lateral growth of the maize leaf may be regulated in the same way as those in a dicot. Cell division in the maize primordium, however, contributes mainly to growth in the proximodistal axis little to growth in width, as in the dicot leaf. Cells which form the lateral margins of the maize leaf are recruited from within the SAM and the primordium is, therefore, flattened at emergence. Interestingly, lb1 also appears to be needed for recruitment of lateral leaf initial cells, because these cells neither show reduced kn1 expression nor participate in primordium formation in lb1 mutants, suggesting that lateral recruitment may also require dorsal cell identity. Loss of narrow sheath (ns) activity, however, has a similar effect on recruitment of lateral ini- References and recommended reading Conclusions Identification of genes that are expressed in organ initials and required for organ formation have added a missing piece to the picture of meristematic patterning. How these genes might interact with each other and with homeobox genes required for meristematic identity, however, remain to be examined. The two major axes of organ growth and patterning appear to be specified within the meristem. Gain-of-function studies implicate homeobox genes in patterning the proximodistal organ axis and genes required for dorsoventral asymmetry have also been identified. To understand how these genes direct polar organ growth and specification of cell type will be a major undertaking. Acknowledgement Thanks to Sarah Hake for providing the pictures for Figure 2. Papers of particular interest, published within the annual period of review, have been highlighted as: • of special interest •• of outstanding interest 1. Furner IJ, Pumphrey JE: Cell fate in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana. Development 1992, 115:755-764. 2. Irish V, Sussex IM: A fate map of the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem. Development 1992, 115:754-753. 3. Poethig RS, Szymkowiack EJ: Clonal analysis of leaf development in maize. Maydica 1995, 40:67-76. 4. Long JA, Moan EI, Medford, JI, Barton MK: A member of the KNOTTED class of homeodomain proteins encoded by the STM gene of Arabidopsis. Nature 1996, 379:66-69. 5. Barton MK, Poethig S: Formation of the shoot apical meristem in Arabidopsis thaliana: an analysis of development of the wild-type and in the shoot meristemless mutant. Development 1993, 119:823-831. 6. Clark SE, Jacobsen SE, Levin JZ, Meyerowitz EM: The CLAVATA and SHOOTMERISTEMLESS loci competitively regulate meristem activity in Arabidopsis. Nature 1996, 379:66-69. 7. Endrizzi K, Moussian B, Haecker A, Levin JZ, Laux T: The SHOOTMERISTEMLESS gene is required for maintenance of undifferentiated cells in Arabidopsis shoot and floral meristems and acts at a different regulatory level than the meristem genes WUSCHEL and ZWILLE. Plant J 1996, 10:967-979. 8. Klucher KM, Chow H, Reiser L, Fischer RL: The AINTEGUMENTA gene of Arabidopsis required for ovule and female gametophyte development is related to the floral homeotic gene APETALA2. Plant Cell 1996, 8:137-153. 9. Elliott RC, Betzner AS, Huttner E, Oakes MP, Tucker WQJ, Gerentes D, Perez P, Smyth DR: AINTEGUMENTA, an APETALA2-like gene of Arabidopsis with pleiotropic roles in ovule development and floral organ growth. Plant Cell 1996, 8:155-168. 10. Okamuro JK, Caster B, Villarroel R, van Montagu M, Jofuku KD: The PA2 domain of APETALA2 defines a large new family of DNA binding proteins in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1997, 94:7076-7081. 11. Bowman JL, Smyth DR, Meyerowitz EM: Genetic interactions among floral homeotic genes of Arabidopsis. Development 1991, 112:1-20. pb2104.qxd 12/06/1999 2:33 PM 60 Page 60 Growth and development 12. Waites R, Selvadurai HRN, Oliver IR, Hudson A: The PHANTASTICA •• gene encodes a MYB transcription factor involved in growth and dorsoventrality of lateral organs in Antirrhinum. Cell 1998, 93:779-789. PHAN is the first example of a regulatory gene with expression confined to the initials of all lateral organs that is required for elaboration of both proximodistal and dorsoventral organ axes. 13. Talbert PB, Adler HT, Parks DW, Comai L: The REVOLUTA gene is necessary for apical meristem development and for limiting cell divisions in the leaves and stems of Arabidopsis thaliana. Development 1995, 121:2723-2735. 14. Pickett FB, Champagne MM, Meeks Wagner DR: Temperaturesensitive mutations that arrest Arabidopsis shoot development. Development 1996, 122:3799-3807. 15. Laufs P, Dockx J, Kronenberger J, Traas J: MGOUN1 and MGOUN2: two genes required for primordium initiation at the shoot apical meristem and floral meristems in Arabidopsis thaliana. Development 1998, 125:1253-1260. 16. Laufs P, Grandjean O, Jonak C, Kiéu K, Traas J: Cellular parameters • of the shoot apical meristem in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 1998:1375-1389. Confocal microscopy was used to determine mitotic indices in the Arabidopsis SAM, providing evidence for a slowly-dividing group of central zone (CZ) stem cells and a faster dividing peripheral zone (PZ) from which organs initiate. The CZ was larger in a clavata mutant, and the PZ larger in mgo mutants clarifying the roles of these genes. 17. Callos JD, Medford JI: Organ positions and pattern formation in the shoot apex. Plant J 1994, 6:1-7. 28. Veit B, Briggs SP, Schmidt RJ, Yanofsky MF, Hake S: Regulation of • leaf initiation by the terminal ear 1 gene of maize. Nature 1998, 393:166-168. Suggests a novel component of meristem patterning. te1 is expressed opposite leaf initials, encodes a putative RNA binding protein and is required for inhibition of leaf initiation. 29. Sylvester A, Cande WZ, Freeling M: Division and differentiation during normal and liguleless-1 maize leaf development. Development 1990, 110:985-1000. 30. Smith LG, Greene B, Veit B, Hake S: A dominant mutation in the maize homeobox gene, Knotted-1, causes its ectopic expression in leaf cells with altered fates. Development 1992, 116:21-30. 31. Schneeberger RG, Becraft PW, Hake S, Freeling M: Ectopic expression of the knox homeobox gene rough sheath1 alters cell fate in the maize leaf. Genes Dev 1995, 9:2292-2304. 32. Freeling M: A conceptual framework for maize leaf development. Dev Biol 1992, 153:44-58. 33. Muehlbauer GJ, Fowler JE, Freeling M: Sectors expression the • homeobox gene liguleless3 implicate a time-dependent mechanism for cell fate acquisition along the proximo-distal axis of the maize leaf. Development 1997, 124:5097-5106. Sectors capable of expressing Lg3 ectopically were induced in developing maize leaves. The phenotypic effects reflected the time at which the sectors were induced, supporting the view that homeobox genes specify developmental maturity. Full interpretation of the results, however, will require analysis of ectopic Lg3 expression at the molecular level. 18. Green PB: Pattern formation in shoots: a likely role for minimal energy configurations of the tunica. Int J Plant Sci 1992, 153:S59-S75. 34. Hake S, Freeling M: Analysis of genetic mosaics shows that the extra epidermal divisions in Knotted mutant maize plants are induced by adjacent mesophyll cells. Nature 1986, 320:621-623. 19. Moussian B, Schoof H, Haecker A, Jürgens G, Laux T: Role of the ZWILLE gene in the regulation of central meristem cell fate during Arabidopsis embryogenesis. EMBO J 1998, 6:1799-1809. 35. Hareven D, Gutfinger T, Parnis A, Eshed Y, Lifschitz E: The making of a compound leaf: genetic manipulation of leaf architecture in tomato. Cell 1996, 84:735-744. 20. McConnell JR, Barton MK: Effects of mutations in the PINHEAD gene of Arabidopsis on the formation of shoot apical meristems. Dev Genet 1995, 16:358-366. 36. Chen JJ, Janssen BJ, Williams A, Sinha N: A gene fusion at a • homeobox locus: alterations in leaf shape and implications for morphological evolution. Plant Cell 1997, 9:1289-1304. Previous work [35] showed that overexpression of the maize knox gene knotted1 increased compounding of tomato leaves. Here, the semi-dominant Mouse-ear mutation of tomato, which conditions a similar phenotype, is shown to correlate with misexpression of a related knox gene, (LeT6, also known as TKn2) probably as a result of fusion to a metabolic gene. Misexpression of LeT6 in transgenic plants has similar effects. 21. Kerstetter RA, Laudencia-Chingcuanco D, Smith LG, Hake S: Loss • of-function mutations in the maize homeobox gene, knotted1, are defective in shoot meristem maintenance. Development 1997, 124:3045-3054. The first description of loss-of-function phenotypes for a maize knox gene. Reveals a similar role to STM in Arabidopsis, although there appears to be less requirement for kn1. 22. Long JA, Barton MK: The development of apical embryonic pattern • in Arabidopsis. Development 1998, 125:3027-3035. Detailed molecular epistasis in embryos reveals that ANT expression in cotyledons does not require STM. 23. Schneeberger R, Tsiantis M, Freeling M, Langdale J: The rough •• sheath2 gene negatively regulates homeobox gene expression during maize leaf development. Development 1998, 125:2857-2865. Although gain-of-function mutations giving rise to ectopic knox gene expression in leaves have been well documented, this is the first identification of a loss-of-function mutation with a similar effect. It suggests that rough sheath2 acts as a negative regulator of several knox genes in leaves. 24. Chuck G, Lincoln C, Hake S: KNAT1 induces lobed leaves with ectopic meristems when overexpressed in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 1996, 8:1277-1289. 25. Williams-Carrier RE, Lie YS, Hake S, Lemaux PG: Ectopic •• expression of the maize kn1 gene phenocopies the Hooded mutant of barley. Development 1997, 124:3737-3745. Includes the surprising finding that knotted1 RNA expressed from a constitutive promoter, or Hooded RNA from a gain-of-function allele, accumulate ectopically only in certain cell types, suggesting post-transcriptional regulation homeobox gene expression that is conserved between barley and maize 26. Scanlon MJ, Schneeberger RG, Freeling M: The maize mutant narrow sheath fails to establish leaf margin identity in a meristematic domain. Development 1996, 122:1683-1691. 27. • Timmermans MCP, Schultes NP, Jankovsky JP, Nelson T: Leafbladeless1 is required for dorsoventrality of lateral organs in maize. Development 1998, 125:2813-2823. Suggests that dorsal cell identity has a similar effect on growth of maize leaves as was proposed for dicot leaves. 37. • Parnis A, Cohen O, Gutfinger T, Hareven D, Zamir D, Lifschitz E: The dominant developmental mutants of tomato, Mouse-ear and Curl, are associated with distinct modes of abnormal transcriptional regulation of a knotted gene. Plant Cell 1997, 9:2143-2158. A more thorough analysis of the knox mutant described in [36•] in comparison to a second gain-of-function mutant, Curl involving the same gene. Phenotype differences correlate with overexpression in Curl and ectopic expression in Mouse-ear. 38. Sussex IM: Experiments on the cause of dorsoventrality in leaves. Nature 1954, 174:351-352. 39. Waites R, Hudson A: phantastica: a gene required for dorsoventrality of leaves in Antirrhinum majus. Development 1995 121:2143-2154. 40. McHale N: LAM-1 and FAT genes control development of the leaf blade in Nicotiana sylvestris. Plant Cell 1993, 5:1029-1038. 41. Bohmert K, Camus I, Bellini C, Bouchez D, Caboche M, Benning C: •• AGO1 defines a novel locus of Arabidopsis controlling leaf development. EMBO J 1998, 17:170-180. ago1 mutants produce narrower organs with loss of some dorsal characters. Evidence for the role of AGO1 in dorsal cell identity is strengthened by the dorsalising effects of its overexpression. 42. McConnell JR, Barton MK: Leaf polarity and meristem formation in •• Arabidopsis. Development 1998, 125:2935-2942. Describes the Phab-1D mutant phenotype involving ectopic dorsal identity in all lateral organs, including ectopic activity of the STM promoter consistent with formation of ectopic, ventral, axillary meristem. 43. Schichnes D, Schneeberger R, Freeling M: Induction of leaves directly from leaves in the maize mutant Lax midrib1-O. Dev Biol 1997, 186:36-45. 44. Scanlon MJ, Freeling M: Clonal sectors reveal that a specific meristem domain is not utilised in the maize mutant narrow sheath. Development 1997, 182:52-66.