Inflorescence Architecture and Development in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Flowering plants show a significant variation in the structure of their inflorescences from very simple to very complex forms. The form and structure of the inflorescence is one of the most important trait in the characterization of species, their taxonomy and the evolution of the different groups of plants. In turn, it has a direct impact on the regulation of  fruit and seed number, affecting crop yields. Consequently, the inflorescence is one of the major organs in determining grain yield.

Mediated by endogenous and exogenous signals, the vegetative shoot apical meristem of any plant will stop the production of leaves, transforms into the inflorescence meristem (IM) and begin the inflorescence development. The inflorescence architecture depends on the activity of the IM that can directly generate floral meristems (FM) that will thus form a defined number of flowers on the main axis, or branch meristems (BM) that can generate a determined number of lateral branches; sequence that can be repeated one to several times. Finally, both the IM and the BMs can generate a terminal flower or end sterile.

The architecture of the inflorescence, therefore, is a consequence of the duration of the IM activity, the number of BM and FM generated and their arrangement.

Numerous investigations  has demonstrated the existence of numerous genes, signaling molecules and meristem identity factors that interact to regulate the activity of inflorescence meristems, many of which have been modified during the domestication of crops, directly affecting the yield traits of these crops.

In turn, different phylogenetic studies have shown that the combination of developmental and mature structure studies is essential, both to elucidate taxonomic aspects and to characterize larger inflorescence  morphological variability.

This Special Issue aims to publish scientific articles related to the development, structure, function, diversity and evolution of inflorescences. It would be essential on this subject to receive contributions from morphological/architectural, anatomical, ontogenic, physiological, taxonomic, phylogenetic, and genetic/molecular regulation studies.

The scope of this special issue is to offer an update on the knowledge about inflorescences and their relationship with the development of the whole plant. The discussion on this topic will make it possible to outline new lines of research that contribute to future prospectives.  All this will make it possible to deepen the understanding of the evolution of the branching systems of plants, especially at the level of their inflorescences as a way of contributing to the challenging task of manipulating inflorescence architecture for crop yield improvement.

Dr. Abelardo Carlos Vegetti
Guest Editor

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• inflorescence
• development
• morphology
• anatomy
• evolution
• gene/molecular regulation
• monopodial and sympodial branching
• flower development
• reproductive meristems