Target genes of AGAMOUS during early flower development in Arabidopsis

Floral organs, whose identity is determined by specific combinations of homeotic genes, originate from a group of undifferentiated cells called the floral meristem. In Arabidopsis, the homeotic gene AGAMOUS (AG) terminates meristem activity and promotes development of stamens and carpels. To understand the program of gene expression activated by AG, we followed genome-wide expression during early stamen and carpel development. Keywords: Developmental time course Described in Gomez-Mena et al, 2005, Development 132: 429-438. Briefly, synchronous development of stamens and carpels was initiated by steroid treatment of plants homozygous for the ap1-1 and cal-1 mutations and expressing a fusion between AGAMOUS and the rat glucocorticoid receptor (35S:AGGR). RNA was extracted one, three and seven days after steroid treatment; two independent steroid-treated samples and two independent untreated controls were used for each time point.