Patterning the meristems - the development and evolution of the floral ground plan Despite the seemingly infinite morphological diversity, all flowers are highly organized structures. The overall pattern, or the floral ground plan, is determined at the earliest developmental stage in making a flower by the floral meristem. Knowledge of how different floral ground plans are established and evolved is critical for our understanding of flower diversification as well as genetic engineering of crop species. Although comparative analyses have revealed many evolutionary trends in the floral ground plan during angiosperm diversification, the molecular mechanisms underlying these evolutionary transitions remain largely known. Using Aquilegia and Mimulus, two charismatic emerging model systems for evo-devo studies, I demonstrate how developing new model systems can help us understand key aspects of the floral ground plan that cannot be addressed by previously established model systems.
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