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Horticultural plants such as vegetables, fruits, and ornamental plants are crucial to human life and socioeconomic development. Gibberellins (GAs), a class of diterpenoid compounds, control numerous developmental processes of plants. The roles of GAs in regulating growth and development of horticultural plants, and in regulating significant progress have been clarified. These findings have significant implications for promoting the quality and quantity of the products of horticultural plants. Here we review recent progress in determining the roles of GAs (including biosynthesis and signaling) in regulating plant stature, axillary meristem outgrowth, compound leaf development, flowering time, and parthenocarpy. These findings will provide a solid foundation for further improving the quality and quantity of horticultural plants products.

Simple and compound which are the two basic types of leaves are distinguished by the pattern of the distribution of blades on the petiole. Compared to simple leaves comprising a single blade, compound leaves have multiple blade units and exhibit more complex and diverse patterns of organ organization, and the molecular mechanisms underlying their pattern formation are receiving more and more attention in recent years. Studies in model legume Medicago truncatula have led to an improved understanding of the genetic control of the compound leaf patterning. This review is an attempt to summarize the current knowledge about the compound leaf morphogenesis of M. truncatula, with a focus on the molecular mechanisms involved in pattern formation. It also includes some comparisons of the molecular mechanisms between leaf morphogenesis of different model species and offers useful information for the molecular design of legume crops.

Most of the early identified brassinosteroid signaling and biosynthetic mutants are null mutants, exhibiting extremely dwarfed phenotypes and male sterility. These null mutants are usually unable to be directly transformed via a routinely used Agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation system and therefore are less useful for genetic characterization of the brassinosteroid (BR)-related pathways. Identification of intermediate signaling mutants such as bri1-5 and bri1-9 has contributed drastically to the elucidation of BR signaling pathway using both genetic and biochemical approaches. However, intermediate mutants of key genes regulating BR biosynthesis have seldom been reported. Here we report identification of several intermediate BR biosynthesis mutants mainly resulted from leaky transcriptions due to the insertions of T-DNAs in the introns. These mutants are semi-dwarfed and fertile and capable to be transformed. These intermediate mutants could be useful tools for future discovery and analyses of novel components regulating BR biosynthesis and catabolism via genetic modifier screen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]