Developmental Robustness by Obligate Interaction of Class B Floral Homeotic Genes and Proteins e1000264

DEF-like and GLO-like class B floral homeotic genes encode closely related MADS-domain transcription factors that act as developmental switches involved in specifying the identity of petals and stamens during flower development. Class B gene function requires transcriptional upregulation by an autor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPLoS computational biology Vol. 5; no. 1
Main Authors Lenser, Thorsten, Theißen, Günter, Dittrich, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published San Francisco Public Library of Science 01.01.2009
Subjects
Behavior
Control theory
Entropy
Experiments
Flowers & plants
Gene expression
Proteins
Random variables
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Summary:DEF-like and GLO-like class B floral homeotic genes encode closely related MADS-domain transcription factors that act as developmental switches involved in specifying the identity of petals and stamens during flower development. Class B gene function requires transcriptional upregulation by an autoregulatory loop that depends on obligate heterodimerization of DEF-like and GLO-like proteins. Because switch-like behavior of gene expression can be displayed by single genes already, the functional relevance of this complex circuitry has remained enigmatic. On the basis of a stochastic in silico model of class B gene and protein interactions, we suggest that obligate heterodimerization of class B floral homeotic proteins is not simply the result of neutral drift but enhanced the robustness of cell-fate organ identity decisions in the presence of stochastic noise. This finding strongly corroborates the view that the appearance of this regulatory mechanism during angiosperm phylogeny led to a canalization of flower development and evolution.
ISSN:1553-734X
1553-7358
DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000264