NZZ Transcription Factor Family
Sexual reproduction is a salient aspect of plants, and elaborate structures, such as the flowers
of angiosperms, have evolved that aid in this process. Within the flower the corresponding sex
organs, the anther and the ovule, form the male and female sporangia, the pollen sac and the
nucellus, respectively. However, despite their central role for sexual reproduction little is
known about the mechanisms that control the establishment of these important structures. Here we
present the identification and molecular characterization of the NOZZLE (NZZ) gene in the
flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In several nzz mutants the nucellus and the pollen sac fail
to form. It indicates that NZZ plays an early and central role in the development of both types of
sporangia and that the mechanisms controlling these processes share a crucial factor. In addition,
NZZ may have an early function during male and female sporogenesis as well. The evolutionary
aspects of these findings are discussed. NZZ encodes a putative protein of unknown function.
However, based on sequence analysis we speculate that NZZ is a nuclear protein and possibly a
transcription factor.
Notes: NZZ is missed in AtTFDB.
5 NZZ sequences,
blast HSP, and multiple sequence alignment in
Soy - TFKB.
2 NZZ sequences in PlantTFDB. All partial sequences.
Last updated by Dr. Jeff Chen on May 22, 2009.