New insights into the regulation of inflorescence architecture

The architecture of inflorescences displays the spatiotemporal arrangement of flowers and determines plant reproductive success through affecting fruit set and plant interaction with biotic or abiotic factors. Flowering plants have evolved a remarkable diversity of inflorescence branching patterns, which is largely governed by developmental decisions in inflorescence meristems and their derived meristems between maintenance of indeterminacy and commitment to the floral fate. Recent findings suggest that regulation of inflorescence architecture is mediated by flowering time genes, Arabidopsis LSH1 and Oryza G1 (ALOG) family genes, and the interaction between the auxin pathway and floral meristem regulators. In this review, we discuss how the relevant new players and mechanisms account for the development of appropriate inflorescence structures in flowering plants in response to environmental and developmental signals.