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. 2016 Dec 24;34(3):640–653. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msw263

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Evolutionary analysis of WUS/WOX5 function in the maintenance of the Arabidopsis shoot apical stem-cell niche and in floral organ development. (A, B) In contrast to the wild-type shoot (A), the wus-1 mutant (B) had defective shoot meristem developent (upper panel) that terminated prematurely in an aberrant flat structure (mid-upper panel). The GFP of enhancer trap line J2341, which showed specific expression in the SAM of wild-type Arabidopsis shoots, was absent from the wus-1 mutant (mid-lower panel). Flowers with four sepals and four petals removed (lower panel). Wild-type flowers contain six stamens and central gynoecium (A), while wus-1 flowers had only one central stamen present and lacked central gynoecium (B). (C–J) Interspecies complementation experiments with WUS/WOX5 orthologues from the green alga lineage to the angiosperm lineage expressed in Arabidopsis wus-1 mutants showed that OtWOX (green alga) and CrWUL (fern) are unable to maintain the shoot stem cell-niche and regulate floral organ morphogenesis (C, D), while the WUS/WOX5 orthologues from seed plants can rescue the defective wus-1 shoot meristem niche and floral organ phenotypes. White arrows indicate the shoot apex. Red arrows indicate the gynoecium. Scale bars: 1 cm (upper panel), 20 μm (mid-upper panel), 100 μm (mid-lower panel), and 1 mm (lower panel).