It is commonly thought that deep phylogenetic conservation of plant microRNAs (miRNAs) and their targets 1,2 indicates conserved regulatory functions. We show that the blind (bl) mutant of Petunia hybrida 3 and the fistulata (fis) mutant of Antirrhinum majus 4,5 , which have similar homeotic phenotypes, are recessive alleles of two homologous miRNA-encoding genes. The BL and FIS genes control the spatial restriction of homeotic class C genes 6,7 to the inner floral whorls, but their ubiquitous early floral expression patterns are in contradiction with a potential role in patterning C gene expression. We provide genetic evidence for the unexpected function of the MIRFIS and MIRBL genes in the center of the flower and propose a dynamic mechanism underlying their regulatory role. Notably, Arabidopsis thaliana, a more distantly related species, also contains this miRNA module but does not seem to use it to confine early C gene expression to the center of the flower.The spatial partitioning of floral homeotic gene expression is crucial for wild-type flower development. Several transcription factors participate in this control, which aims at transcriptional silencing of the so-called 'C genes' outside their genuine expression domain in the inner two whorls of the flower, where they govern reproductive organ (stamen and carpel) development 6,7 . The functions of orthologous repressor genes, constituting the A function of the floral ABCs 6 , are, in part, comparable between different species 8 , as are some of the cis-acting regulatory regions within the large second intron of their structurally and functionally related target C genes AGAMOUS (AG) in Arabidopsis thaliana 7 , pMADS3 in P. hybrida 9 and PLENA and FARINELLI (PLE and FAR) in A. majus 10 . There are also exceptions to these overall similarities among species. For instance, orthologs of the A. thaliana APETALA2 (AP2) gene have no role in C gene regulation in P. hybrida 11 or A. majus 12 , raising the question of whether other genes fulfill this role. Candidates are the BL gene in P. hybrida and FIS in A. majus, which, when mutated, show markedly similar homeotically converted stamenoid petals in their second floral whorls 4,5 (Fig. 1).By a combination of transposon tagging and map-based cloning strategies, we cloned the BL and FIS genes and found that they encode homologous bona fide miRNAs (miRBL and miRFIS), related in their core sequences to members of the large miR169 family 13,14 (Fig. 2). The bl-1 and fis-1 alleles lie within large genomic deletions and thus represent null alleles; bl-2 and fis-2 are transposon induced and genetically unstable alleles (Fig. 2a). miRNA-encoding genes are relatively small targets for mutation, and therefore, recessive mutants are infrequent; bl and fis thus offer a rare opportunity to study and compare the function of potential orthologs in two plant species. miRNAs control gene expression by recognizing short complementary sequences in their transcripts (miRNA-recognition elements, or MREs), which are then post-transcrip...