2024/09/13 by Lucie Riglet, Argyris Zardilis, Alice L. M. Fairnie +3 · 1 voice · 4 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant Molecular Biology Research #Plant Reproductive Biology #Plant and animal studies
paper · doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp5574
openalex publication_date 2024/09/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Colorful flower patterns are key signals to attract pollinators. To produce such motifs, plants specify boundaries dividing petals into subdomains where cells develop distinctive pigmentations, shapes, and textures. While some transcription factors and biosynthetic pathways behind these characteristics are well studied, the upstream processes restricting their activities to specific petal regions remain enigmatic. Here, we unveil that the petal surface of Hibiscus trionum , an emerging model featuring a bullseye on its corolla, is prepatterned as the bullseye boundary position is specified long before it becomes visible. Using a computational model, we explore how pattern proportions are maintained while petals experience a 100-fold size increase. Exploiting transgenic lines and natural variants, we show that plants can regulate boundary position during the prepatterning phase or modulate growth on either side of this boundary later in development to vary bullseye proportions. Such modifications are functionally relevant, as buff-tailed bumblebees can reliably identify food sources based on bullseye size and prefer certain pattern proportions.