Coordination Funds

早期的陆地植物面临着不断扩大活动范围的挑战，离水更远，总是面临脱水的风险。因此，陆地植物的有性繁殖也是为了独立于水。有性繁殖的几项关键创新起源于陆地植物谱系，例如具有坚硬外表面的孢子，含有减少的雌配子体的胚珠，以及在脱水状态下散布在种子内的多细胞胚胎。因此，陆地植物有性繁殖的进化为关键的生物学概念提供了令人震惊的例子，例如，“创新”(例如，胚珠和花等新的生殖结构的起源)和“共同进化”(例如，在信号肽和参与受精的受体之间)。人们对这些过程背后的进化动力学和分子机制知之甚少。在研究单位(RU)，ICIPS的七个独立研究小组将在一个拥有计算和生物信息学核心专业知识的小组的支持下，汇集植物分子、发育、细胞和进化生物学方面的互补专业知识，以阐明推动植物繁殖创新的分子机制。ICIPS将以关键转录因子家族的进化、它们所参与的基因调控网络以及男性和女性生殖结构之间的交流为目标。在此，我们将为比较陆地植物有性繁殖演化过程中的时间和空间ROS动态奠定基础。我们将侧重于控制种子和花发育等种子植物关键形态发生事件的基因的非种子植物近缘基因的系统发育和共同进化。我们将结合分子生物学、细胞生物学、活体成像和遗传编码的生物传感器、基因组学和转录组学、基因组编辑和生物信息学的最新方法，在最近才完全建立的非种子植物模型系统中进行此类研究，例如地钱、苔藓和蕨类植物Ceratopteris。此外，该RU将促进德国进化发育生物学领域年轻研究人员社区的发展，他们将常规地将分子遗传学和细胞生物学的方法与智能生物信息学相结合，并将已建立的和新的方法扩展到非种子植物模式物种。

Early land plants have met the challenge of continuous range expansion, further away from water, always at risk of dehydration. Consequently, also the sexual reproduction of land plants is geared towards independency of water. Several key innovations in sexual reproduction originated in the land plant lineage, such as spores with a rigid outer surface, ovules harboring reduced female gametophytes and a multicellular embryo that is dispersed within seeds in a dehydrated state. Hence, the evolution of sexual reproduction in land plants provides stunning examples for the crucial biological concepts of ‚innovation‘ (e.g., origin of new reproductive structures such as ovules and flowers), and ‚coevolution‘ (e.g. between signalling peptides and receptors involved in fertilization). The evolutionary dynamics and molecular mechanisms underlying these processes are only poorly understood. In the Research Unit (RU) ICIPS seven independent research groups will bring together complementary expertise in plant molecular, developmental, cell and evolutionary biology, supported by a group with core expertise in computation and bioinformatics, to shed light on the molecular mechanisms that drive innovations in plant reproduction. ICIPS will target the evolution of key transcription factor families, the gene regulatory networks they are involved in as well as the communication between male and female reproductive structures. Here, we will establish the basis for comparisons of temporal and spatial ROS dynamics during the evolution of land plant sexual reproduction. We will put an emphasis on phylogeny and coevolution of non-seed plant relatives of genes that control crucial morphogenetic events in spermatophytes such as seed and flower development. We will combine state of the art methods of molecular biology, cell biology, in vivo imaging with genetically-encoded biosensors, genomics and transcriptomics, genome editing and bioinformatics in non-seed plant model systems that only recently have become fully established for such studies, such as the liverwort Marchantia, the moss Physcomitrium and the fern Ceratopteris. Further, this RU will foster the development of a community for young researchers in the field of evolutionary developmental biology in Germany, who will routinely combine approaches from molecular genetics and cell biology with smart bioinformatics and extend established and novel methods to non-seed plant model species.