Coordination Funds

早期的陆地植物面临着不断扩大生存范围的挑战，远离水源，总是处于脱水的危险之中。因此，陆地植物的有性繁殖也趋向于不依赖水。有性生殖的几个关键创新起源于陆地植物谱系，例如具有刚性外表面的孢子，含有减少的雌性配子体的胚珠，以及在脱水状态下分散在种子内的多细胞胚胎。因此，陆地植物有性生殖的进化为关键的生物学概念“创新”（例如，新的生殖结构如胚珠和花的起源）和“共同进化”（例如，参与受精的信号肽和受体之间的进化）提供了令人惊叹的例子。这些过程背后的进化动力学和分子机制尚不清楚。在研究单位（RU）， ICIPS的七个独立研究小组将汇集植物分子、发育、细胞和进化生物学方面的互补专业知识，并由一个具有计算和生物信息学核心专业知识的小组提供支持，以阐明驱动植物繁殖创新的分子机制。ICIPS将针对关键转录因子家族的进化，它们所涉及的基因调控网络以及雄性和雌性生殖结构之间的交流。在此，我们将为陆地植物有性生殖进化过程中ROS的时空动态比较奠定基础。我们将把重点放在非种子植物近缘基因的系统发育和共同进化上，这些基因控制着精子植物中关键的形态发生事件，如种子和花的发育。我们将结合分子生物学、细胞生物学、体内成像、遗传编码生物传感器、基因组学和转录组学、基因组编辑和生物信息学等最先进的方法，在非种子植物模型系统中进行研究，这些系统直到最近才完全建立起来，如地茅、苔藓和蕨类角蕨。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，并将已建立的新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.