Format: ORAL

Ivonne Snchez-del Pino1, Alexander Vrijdaghs2, Stefan de Folter3, Elsa Gngora1, Valentn Luna Garca3

1 Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán A.C. Mérida. México. 2 Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, KU. Leuven. Belgium. 3 Laboratorio de Genómica Funcional del Desarrollo de Plantas. Irapuato. México.

Most eudicot angiosperms have flowers with four types of floral organs arranged in concentric whorls - sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels -. However, throughout the process of evolution, flower morphology has evolved, resulting in a variety of modifications such as the origin of new or the loss of existing floral parts, changes in the function of floral organs, and others. In Amaranthaceae, androecial tubes occur with appendages known as pseudostaminodes, alternating with the stamens. The characterization of the pseudostaminodes has been controversial with different definitions found in literature. However, a recent floral ontogenetic study based on scanning electron and light microscopy suggested that pseudostaminodes are a new category of floral organs called androecial appendages. Two types of appendages were identified: appendages on the androecial tube and appendages on the filaments. To test this hypothesis and further clarify the nature of the androecial appendages, a RNA-seq study was conducted in order to obtain transcriptome sequences. Bioinformatic analyses were then performed to determine differentially genes expressed in these new floral organs, and their possible functions.