An everlasting pioneer: the story of Antirrhinum research

Despite the tremendous success of Arabidopsis thaliana, no single model can represent the vast range of form that is seen in the ~250,000 existing species of flowering plants (angiosperms). Here, we consider the history and future of an alternative angiosperm model — the snapdragon Antirrhinum majus. We ask what made Antirrhinum attractive to the earliest students of variation and inheritance, and how its use led to landmark advances in plant genetics and to our present understanding of plant development. Finally, we show how the wide diversity of Antirrhinum species, combined with classical and molecular genetics — the two traditional strengths of Antirrhinum — provide an opportunity for developmental, evolutionary and ecological approaches. These factors make A. majus an ideal comparative angiosperm

Use of Petunia to unravel plant meristem functioning

In the past decade, enormous progress has been made in our understanding of the molecular and genetic control of meristem growth, maintenance and differentiation into plant organs. Several model plants have contributed to our current knowledge of meristem function. Research using Petunia has had a substantial share in this progress. Integration of information obtained from this species gives clues about the common and diverged pathways underlying the formation and functioning of plant meristem