Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 10, 2025
05:22
Identification of the Genes Involved in Stomatal Development via Epidermal Phenotype Scoring
Published on: January 20, 2023
1.9K
Developmental stochasticity and variation in floral phyllotaxis.
1Center for Education in Liberal Arts and Sciences, Osaka University, 1-16 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan. kitazawa@celas.osaka-u.ac.jp.
Journal of Plant Research
|April 6, 2021
Summary
Floral phyllotaxis exhibits variability due to molecular stochasticity and developmental flexibility. This variation, including pattern transitions and organ arrangement changes, contributes to the diversity of angiosperm flowers.
Area of Science:
- Developmental biology
- Plant morphology
- Evolutionary botany
Background:
- Floral phyllotaxis, the arrangement of floral organs, is generally robust but shows variability in certain angiosperm clades.
- Understanding the causes of this variability and its contribution to floral diversity is crucial for evolutionary studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the causes of variability in floral phyllotaxis.
- To investigate how floral phyllotaxis variation contributes to floral diversity in angiosperms.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent studies on molecular and cellular stochasticity in plant development.
- Analysis of research on vegetative and inflorescence phyllotaxis variability.
- Examination of computer models simulating phyllotactic pattern formation.
Main Results:
- Molecular and cellular stochasticity, while often dampened, is essential for plant development and can influence phyllotaxis.
- Plants exhibit phenotypic flexibility in phyllotaxis, including fluctuations, pattern transitions, and irregular organ arrangements (permutation).
- Stochasticity plays a role in pattern transitions and irregularities, and variations in floral organ number/positioning are observed.
Conclusions:
- Variability in floral phyllotaxis arises from inherent stochasticity and developmental flexibility.
- Two key diversification mechanisms in angiosperm floral evolution involve precise organ regulation and organ redundancy leading to phyllotactic flexibility.
Related Concept Videos
02:19Morphogenesis
29.2K
Plant morphogenesis—the development of a plant’s form and structure—involves several overlapping developmental processes, including growth and cell differentiation. Precursor cells differentiate into specific cell types, which are organized into the tissues and organ systems that make up the functional plant.
29.2K
01:21Frequency-dependent Selection
22.5K
When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.
22.5K
02:03Law of Independent Assortment
60.2K
While Mendel’s Law of Segregation states that the two alleles for one gene are separated into different gametes, a different question of how different genes are inherited remains. For example, is the gene for tall plants inherited with the gene for green peas? Mendel asked this question by experimenting with a dihybrid cross; a cross in which both parents are homozygous for two distinct traits resulting in an F1 generation that are heterozygous for both traits.
60.2K
02:45Biological Clocks and Seasonal Responses
40.4K
The circadian—or biological—clock is an intrinsic, timekeeping, molecular mechanism that allows plants to coordinate physiological activities over 24-hour cycles called circadian rhythms. Photoperiodism is a collective term for the biological responses of plants to variations in the relative lengths of dark and light periods. The period of light-exposure is called the photoperiod.
40.4K
01:31Formation of Species
43.7K
Speciation describes the formation of one or more new species from one or sometimes multiple original species. The resulting species are discrete from the parent species, and barriers to reproduction will typically exist. There are two primary mechanisms, speciation with and without geographic isolation—allopatric and sympatric speciation, respectively.
43.7K
02:46Chi-square Analysis
41.3K
The chi-square test is a statistical hypothesis test. It is used to check whether there is a significant difference between an expected value and an observed value. In the context of genetics, it enables us to either accept or reject a hypothesis, based on how much the observed values deviate from the expected values.
The chi-square test was developed by Pearson in 1990.
The first step of performing a Chi-square analysis is to establish a null hypothesis, which assumes that there is no real...
The chi-square test was developed by Pearson in 1990.
The first step of performing a Chi-square analysis is to establish a null hypothesis, which assumes that there is no real...
41.3K