背景回顾：Throughout development, plant meristems regularly produce organs in defined spiral, opposite, or whorl patterns. Cauliflowers present an unusual organ arrangement with a multitude of spirals nested over a wide range of scales. 

提出问题：How such a fractal, self-similar organization emerges from developmental mechanisms has remained elusive. 

结果1：Combining experimental analyses in an Arabidopsis thaliana cauliflower-like mutant with modeling, we found that curd self-similarity arises because the meristems fail to form flowers but keep the “memory” of their transient passage in a floral state. 

结果2：Additional mutations affecting meristem growth can induce the production of conical structures reminiscent of the conspicuous fractal Romanesco shape. 

结论：This study reveals how fractal-like forms may emerge from the combination of key, defined perturbations of floral developmental programs and growth dynamics.

 摘 要 

在整个发育过程中，植物的分生组织会以螺旋、对生或轮生的模式来形成规则分布的器官。花椰菜却呈现出一种不同寻常的器官排列方式，多个层级的许多螺旋状组织嵌套在一起。但是，这种分形、具有自相似特征的组织是如何通过发育形成的，这一问题至今仍不清楚。本文结合对拟南芥类似花椰菜突变体的实验分析和建模，结果发现这种自相似性特征是由于分生组织未能形成花组织，但仍保持了其向花过渡的短瞬“记忆”。额外的影响分生组织生长的突变会诱导锥形结构的产生，类似于典型的分形罗马花椰菜（Romanesco）形态。本文的研究揭示了植物中对花发育程序和生长动态的特定扰动，可能会导致分形类外形结构的形成。