Transport of boron by the tassel-less1 aquaporin is critical for vegetative and reproductive development in maize.

The element boron (B) is an essential plant micronutrient, and B deficiency results in significant crop losses worldwide. The maize (Zea mays) tassel-less1 (tls1) mutant has defects in vegetative and inflorescence development, comparable to the effects of B deficiency. Positional cloning revealed that tls1 encodes a protein in the aquaporin family co-orthologous to known B channel proteins in other species.

vanishing tassel2 encodes a grass-specific tryptophan aminotransferase required for vegetative and reproductive development in maize.

Auxin plays a fundamental role in organogenesis in plants. Multiple pathways for auxin biosynthesis have been proposed, but none of the predicted pathways are completely understood. Here, we report the positional cloning and characterization of the vanishing tassel2 (vt2) gene of maize (Zea mays).

Developmental disaster1: A novel mutation causing defects during vegetative and inflorescence development in maize (Zea mays, Poaceae).

Axillary meristems, which give rise to branches and flowers, play a critical role in plant architecture and reproduction. To understand how axillary meristems initiate, we have screened for mutants with defects in axillary meristem initiation to uncover the genes controlling this process. These mutants, called the barren class of mutants in maize (Zea mays), have defects in axillary meristem initiation during both vegetative and reproductive development.