REHSE, TANIA1*, W. JOHN KRESS2, and ELENA KRAMER3. 1Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708, USA; 2Botany, United States National Herbarium, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0166, USA; 3Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, BioLabs 1109, 16 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. - Staminode evolution and development in the tropical anigiosperm order Zingiberales.
The order Zingiberales is comprised of eight families of economically
important plants, ranging from banana and ginger to bird-of-paradise
and heliconia. Species in this order display remarkable diversity in
floral from, most notably in the androecial whorls where stamens are
absent or have been replaced by petal-like organs. The most basal
families display five or six fertile stamens, but more advanced
lineages have up to five petaloid staminodes in the place of fertile
stamens. Previous studies of floral MADS-box transcription factors in
model systems have shown that changes in their relative spatial and
temporal expression patterns can produce similar homeotic changes of
floral organs, such as a transformation from stamens to petals or
petaloid staminodes. We have initiated an investigation of the
relative spatial and temporal expression of both mRNA and protein
expression of the B (APETALA3 and PISTILLATA) and C (AGAMOUS) class
MADS-box transcription factors to determine the genetic basis for the
change from stamens to staminodes in the order. In this poster, we
present the APETALA3/PISTILLATA orthologues from Musella lasiocarpa as
the initial stage of this study, and discuss its implications and
directions for future research.
Key words: AGAMOUS, APETALA3/PISTILLATA, development, evolution, staminode, Zingiberales