Floral Genes

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flower’s shape and how it grows affect all aspects of a plant, says Penn State biologist Claude dePamphilis: pollination, gene flow, predation, and seed dispersal, as well as fruit and seed production.

More than 100 genes that control flowering are known, but most were found in a handful of laboratory plants — Arabidopsis, maize, and snapdragon (Antirrhinum). These do not begin to represent the many different species — around 300,000, says dePamphilis, who is proposing a Floral Genome Project. Scientists from Penn State, the universities of Florida, Michigan, and Alabama, and Cornell will identify genes for flowering in a wide range of species, 15 in all, including poppy, avocado, blueberry, asparagus, gooseberry, magnolia, and yellow poplar; they will build on data from plants whose genomes are to be sequenced soon, including rice, soybean, and tomato.

They hope to discover the origin of genes for flower development and to fill in the "missing links" of flower evolution. Among the results will be a Virtual Flower Web site for public use.

—Jenai Young

Claude W. dePamphilis, Ph.D., is associate professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science, 208 Mueller Lab, University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-6412; cwd3@psu.edu. Photo by Gerald Lange (gxl7@psu.edu) and Jennifer Anne Tucker of the Digial Photography Studio, which is suppported by Apple Computer, Calumet Photographic, Eastman Kodak, Megavision, Photographic Supply, M&T Mank and Rockwell Foundation.