INNER NO OUTER regulates abaxial– adaxial patterning in Arabidopsis ovules

  1. Jacinto M. Villanueva,
  2. Jean Broadhvest,
  3. Bernard A. Hauser,
  4. Robert J. Meister,
  5. Kay Schneitz, and
  6. Charles S. Gasser
  1. Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA; Institut für Pflanzenbiologie, Universitaet Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland

Abstract

The Arabidopsis INNER NO OUTER (INO) gene is essential for formation and asymmetric growth of the ovule outer integument. INO encodes a member of the newly described YABBY family of putative transcription factors that contain apparent Cys2–Cys2 zinc-finger domains and regions of similarity to the high mobility group (HMG) transcription factors. In wild-type plants, INO is expressed specifically on one side of the central region of each ovule primordium in the cells that give rise to the outer integument. Alterations in the INO expression pattern in mutant backgrounds implicate INO as a positive regulator of its own expression, and ANT, HLL,BEL1, and SUP as direct or indirect negative regulators that help to establish the spatial pattern of INO expression. We hypothesize that INO is necessary for polarity determination in the central part of the ovule. Maintenance of polarity in other parts of ino ovules indicates the existence of additional regulators and provides further evidence that the ovule is a compound structure.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • Present addresses: 3Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114 USA; 4Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA.

  • Corresponding author.

  • E-MAIL csgasser{at}ucdavis.edu; FAX (530) 752-3085.

    • Received September 24, 1999.
    • Accepted October 19, 1999.
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