ABC Model of Flower Development (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The ABC model of flower development in angiosperms was formulated by E. Coen and Elliot Meyerowitz in 1991. This model is built on the observation of mutants with defects in floral organ development. The ABC model summarizes how the presence or absence of different classes of transcription factors in the different parts of the flower regulates the development of floral organs. Two key observations have led to the ABC model. First, the discovery of homeotic mutations in which one organ develops in a location normally occupied by a different organ. Wild roses, for example, have only five petals but many stamens. Garden roses have a homeotic gene that causes some of the potential stamens to develop into petals instead. Second, each of the genes that affect the identity of organs in flowers has an effect on two groups of flower organs, affecting petals and sepals or affecting petals and stamens.