Flower development in Gerbera Hybrida (asteraceae)

The angiosperm family Asteraceae is characterized by composite inflorescences, which are highly organized structures consisting of different types of flowers which may vary morphologically from each other. Our interest is to reveal the molecular mechanisms controlling floral organ differentiation and inflorescence development in Asteraceae, using Gerbera hybrida, a common ornamental plant, as our experimental system. The ability to transform gerbera genetically is one of the major advantages in our system. We have shown using anthocyanin pathway genes and regulatory genes from the MADS box gene family that the basic developmental features during floral organ differentiation, deduced from the model species, Arabidopsis, Antirrhinum and Petunia, also exist in gerbera. However, we have also found new gene functions as well as functions for genes whose role was previously unknown.