A link between LEAFY and B‐gene homologues in Welwitschia mirabilis sheds light on ancestral mechanisms prefiguring floral development

What is it about?

The origins of flowers is still a mystery. Gymnosperms evolved just before flowering plants but they do not produce flowers themselves, instead they form male and female reproductive cones. Here we found that part of the gene network acting in flowers is also at work in the reproductive cones of the gymnosperm Welwitschia. Thus, the mechanisms that control flower development probably emerged from the recycling of a genetic network that existed before flowering plants.

Featured Image