Ovules are the principal female reproductive organs and progenitors of the seeds in higher plants. Besides the
obvious importance for sexual plant reproduction and agronomy, ovule development has become a model system
for studying organogenesis in general. The NOZZLE (NZZ) gene of Arabidopsis thaliana was found to play a
fundamental early role in ovule formation. In nzz mutants the nucellus, the distal part of the ovule eventually
producing the egg cell, is absent. We have two mutant alleles of nzz, one of which was obtained by transposon
mutagenesis. We will study the NZZ function at the molecular and genetic level. For this aim we will clone,
sequence and further analyze the gene. We will also study the mutant phenotype in detail and generate create
double mutants with nzz and other ovule defective mutants in order to explore the corresponding genetic
interactions.