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The Genetic Basis of Floral Organ Identity and Its Applications in Ornamental Plant Breeding

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Ornamental Crops

Part of the book series: Handbook of Plant Breeding ((HBPB,volume 11))

Abstract

Petunia hybrida (or garden petunia) is worldwide one of the most popular bedding plants. At the same time, petunia has a decades-long history as a model species for scientific research to study a variety of processes, including floral organ development. Here we explain the genetic basis of floral organ identity in a comprehensible manner and illustrate the potential of floral organ identity mutants for ornamental plant breeding, using petunia as an example. Although the B- and C-floral organ identity functions are well conserved at the molecular level, indicating broad applicability, different species may exhibit significant differences in the degree of redundancy versus subfunctionalization/specialization among duplicated pairs of the homeotic genes. This is a direct consequence of the complex origin of different plant genomes, which were shaped by whole-genome, large and small-scale duplication events, often leading to (partial) genetic redundancy. Since classical genetic screens only can uncover nonredundant functions, this is probably the main reason why the use of floral organ identity mutants as breeding targets has remained unexplored in many ornamentals. We discuss how different breeding strategies may cope with this phenomenon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, UCB Lyon 1, CNRS, INRA, Lyon, France

    Mathilde Chopy, Patrice Morel, Enrico Costanzo, Suzanne Rodrigues Bento, Pierre Chambrier & Michiel Vandenbussche

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  1. Mathilde Chopy
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  2. Patrice Morel
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  3. Enrico Costanzo
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  4. Suzanne Rodrigues Bento
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  5. Pierre Chambrier
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  6. Michiel Vandenbussche
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Correspondence to Michiel Vandenbussche .

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  1. Plant Sciences Unit, Applied Genetics and Breeding, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Melle, Belgium

    Johan Van Huylenbroeck

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Chopy, M., Morel, P., Costanzo, E., Rodrigues Bento, S., Chambrier, P., Vandenbussche, M. (2018). The Genetic Basis of Floral Organ Identity and Its Applications in Ornamental Plant Breeding. In: Van Huylenbroeck, J. (eds) Ornamental Crops. Handbook of Plant Breeding, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90698-0_2

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