Lab - Mutation and floral development in Arabidopsis thaliana

Extract from the official bulletin:
Terminal S: Earth in the universe, life, evolution of living beings: genetics and evolution (1-A). The relationship between organization and way of life, result of evolution: the example of fixed life in plants.

Scientific problem:
Despite a wide variety of flowers, the organization of the floral parts of a flower always follows the same pattern in concentric crowns, or whorls.
Furthermore, the consistent organization of a flower within the same species and the remarkable similarities between flowers of different species suggest the idea of genetic control in floral development.

Operational procedure:
For this practical work, we are interested in the organization of the different floral parts that make up the wild flower of A. thaliana, and then we compare this organization to that of mutant flowers.
The size of the flowers requires observation under a binocular microscope, and the observations will result in digital images. This also provides an opportunity to highlight the importance of models and mutants in biology.
Observing wild and mutant flowers of Arabidopsis thaliana allows for a first approach to the genetic mechanisms that control floral organization. The observations should then be combined with other resources to establish the link between genotype and phenotype.