flower-development
Flower development is the process by which flowering plants transition from vegetative growth to producing reproductive structures, governed by precise patterns of gene expression in meristems as described by the ABC model. Understanding this process is fundamental to plant biology, as it reveals how environmental and genetic signals are integrated to coordinate the timing and architecture of floral organs. Research in this area has broad implications for agriculture, enabling scientists to manipulate flowering time and reproductive success in crop species.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-14
Researchers traced the evolutionary origins of a family of plant gene regulators called DIVARICATA (DIV), revealing they arose from an ancient gene fusion event and were later reshaped through gene domain losses—ultimately forming a molecular on/off switch that controls how plants grow and develop.
The DIVARICATA (DIV) gene arose from the fusion of two ancestral MYB genes, originally producing a three-domain protein (MYBA-MYB1-MYB2) before losing the MYBA domain in green plants.
Further truncation of the MYB1 domain gave rise to a competing gene family (LFG), which retains only the MYB2 domain, illustrating how gene shortening repeatedly created new regulatory players.
Components of the DIV-based regulatory network are found across a broad diversity of eukaryotes, suggesting this on/off switch system predates the evolution of land plants and may be ancestral to a large group of complex organisms.