A floral induction system for the study of early Arabidopsis flower development

Assessing the molecular changes that occur over the course of flower development is hampered by difficulties in isolating sufficient amounts of floral tissue at specific developmental stages. This is especially problematic when investigating molecular events at very early stages of Arabidopsis flower development, as the floral buds are minute and are initiated sequentially such that a single flower on an inflorescence is at a given developmental stage. Moreover, young floral buds are hidden by older buds, which present an additional challenge for dissection. To circumvent these issues, a floral induction system that allows the simultaneous induction of a large number of flowers on the inflorescence of a single plant was generated. To allow the plant community to avail of the full benefits of this system, we address some common problems that can be encountered when growing these plants and collecting floral buds for analysis.