Nov 5, PSLA seminar Vivian Irish, Yale University
A thorny question: tinkering to evolve a novel mode of plant stem cell arrest
Vivian Irish, Daniel C. Eaton Professor and Chair of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Yale University
Date: Friday November 5
Time: 12:15 pm -1:15 pm
Room: Floriculture Room 101, UCONN Floriculture Greenhouse, 1395 Storrs Road, Storrs, CT 06268
Abstract:
Plants can’t run away from predators, so many plant species have developed an arsenal of physical or chemical weapons to deter herbivores. Thorns represent one such type of defensive weapon. Thorns arise from axillary shoot apical meristems that proliferate for a time and then terminally differentiate into a sharp tip. Like other meristems, thorn meristems contain stem cells but, in the case of thorns, these stem cells undergo a programmed cessation of proliferative activity. Using Citrus, I will describe the gene regulatory network necessary for thorn development; evolution of new binding sites in the promoter of a key regulator can account for the evolution of Citrus thorn identity. Modulating this pathway can significantly alter plant architecture and could be leveraged to improve crop yields.
Dr. Irish obtained her B.A. in Biology from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University under the mentorship of William Gelbart, investigating dorsal-ventral polarity in the Drosophila embryo. She continued to investigate patterning processes in the Drosophila embryo as a postdoc at Cambridge University, and then turned her attention to exploring patterning processes in the Arabidopsis flower with Ian Sussex at Yale University. She joined the faculty at Yale in 1991 and, has focused on characterizing the genes and pathways regulating organogenesis and growth in the flower. Dr. Irish is a past president of the Society for Developmental Biology, and serves as editor for the journals Developmental Biology and Evolution & Development.
Using molecular, genetic, genomic and modeling approaches, the Irish lab focuses on understanding how plants regulate developmental plasticity to elaborate particular organ types. These interests range from investigating how stem cell proliferation is controlled to how biomechanical forces impact the specification of organ and cell shape. Much of the lab’s work is centered on understanding how these processes are integrated in forming a petal, a simple laminar organ of few cell types, but whose form varies widely in different plant species.
For more information, contact: Huanzhong Wang at huanzhong.wang@uconn.edu