Spatial control of potato tuberization by the TCP transcription factor BRANCHED1b.

The control of carbon allocation, storage and usage is critical for plant growth and development and is exploited for both crop food production and CO capture. Potato tubers are natural carbon reserves in the form of starch that have evolved to allow propagation and survival over winter. They form from stolons, below ground, where they are protected from adverse environmental conditions and animal foraging.

A Recently Evolved Alternative Splice Site in the BRANCHED1a Gene Controls Potato Plant Architecture.

Amplification and diversification of transcriptional regulators that control development is a driving force of morphological evolution. A major source of protein diversity is alternative splicing, which leads to the generation of different isoforms from a single gene. The mechanisms and timing of intron evolution nonetheless remain unclear, and the functions of alternative splicing-generated protein isoforms are rarely studied.

Role of tomato BRANCHED1-like genes in the control of shoot branching.

In angiosperms, shoot branching greatly determines overall plant architecture and affects fundamental aspects of plant life. Branching patterns are determined by genetic pathways conserved widely across angiosperms. In Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae, Rosidae) BRANCHED1 (BRC1) plays a central role in this process, acting locally to arrest axillary bud growth.