LAUSR

Plant organ development is a highly ordered process. At the cellular level, early stage organs consist of cells undergoing active cell division. As the organ grows, cells will cease division and enter the phase of expansion and differentiation. This transition often occurs in a temporal and spatial specific fashion that largely determines the final form of the organ. The Arabidopsis petal is an excellent model for dissecting the temporal and spatial regulation of plant organ growth. In this study, we focus on investigating two key transcription factors, RABBIT EARS (RBE) and TCP5, which conduct temporal-specific roles during petal growth. We characterized the interactions of their downstream genetic networks and found that they coordinately regulate important genes involved in plant organ development, particularly those associated with plant hormonal pathways. We hope these results will help elucidate how these two genes function together in the temporal regulation of petal growth, and in the long term, further understand the general mechanisms that establish the patterns of plant organ development.