[Sci-all-l] PBK Seminar, Elliot Meyerowitz, 1/27

[Kam Dahlquist]

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar
Elliot Meyerowitz
Professor of Biology
California Institute of Technology

will speak on
The ABC's of Flower Development

Thursday, January 27
5:30PM
New England 104


The ABC's of Flower Development
Flowers form from small groups of cells that show none of the 
characteristics of floral organs (sepals, petals, stamens & carpels), and 
therefore no pattern of organs.  How does a group of unspecified cells turn 
the course of a week or two into a large, patterned structure with four 
different organ types, each composed in turn of a number of different cell 
types?  This is a fundamental question in developmental biology of all 
organisms.  In the case of flowers, part of the answer is in the activation 
and activities of a group of master regulator genes called the ABC 
genes.  I will describe the discovery, nature and activities of the ABC 
genes in Arabidopsis thaliana; the genetic logic of flower development; and 
the use of ABC genes in transgenic plants to design and grow novel types of 
flowers.


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Kam D. Dahlquist, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology

Vassar College, Box 516
124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0516

Tel: 845-437-5266
Fax: 845-437-7315
E-mail: kadahlquist at vassar.edu
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