Spatio-temporal Dynamics of the Patterning of Arabidopsis Flower Meristem

Abstract

The qualitative model presented in this work recovers the onset of the four fields that correspond to those of each floral organ whorl of Arabidopsis flower, suggesting a mechanism for the generation of the positional information required for the differential expression of the A, B and C identity genes according to the ABC model for organ determination during early stages of flower development. Our model integrates a previous model for the emergence of WUS pattern in the apical meristem, and shows that this pre-pattern is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the posterior information of the four fields predicted by the ABC model. Furthermore, our model predicts that LFY diffusion along the L1 layer of cells is not a necessary condition for the patterning of the floral meristem.