XVI International Botanical Congess

Unifoliata and Knotted1-like genes have been implicated in compound leaf development in tomato and pea respectively. Both genes suggest a similarity between compound leaf and shoot development. Knotted1-like genes are required for shoot meristem initiation and maintenance: uni is the homologue of the floral meristem identity gene LEAFY from Arabidopsis. Unifoliata is required for the correct specification of floral organ number in pea and for compound leaf pinnation. We have found that Unifoliata gene expression in pea leaf mutants is correlated with their capacity to branch. We are interested in floral genes that also regulate compound leaf development as they suggest a link between these two modern day derivatives of ancient branched lateral structures. We are interested in whether this link between flower and leaf development exists in other plant species with compound leaves that initiate acropetally and in species that initiate leaflets basipetally.