Genetic networks controling floral reproductive organ development

Fruit patterning and fruit traits such as form, size or texture, depend in great extent from carpel patterning, the ovule-bearing floral organs. Carpels form the gynoecium, probably the most complex organ in the plant, organized in a structure of functional modules with specific roles. Our long-term goal is to understand how these modules are specified and spatially distributed in the developing gynoecium. Only lately, we are also extending this type of studies to stamens, the male reproductive organs. We use genetic, molecular and genomic tools to unravel the architecture of the regulatorynetworks directing these processes in Arabidopsis, the most widely used model plant, trying to understand how hormone signaling, regulatory hierarchies and protein-protein interactions contribute to finally define stamen and carpel morphogenesis