Mapping genetic and cellular interactions during growth of a simple plant system

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Global agriculture is founded on a few crop species, the earliest of which were domesticated by Neolithic farmers. They have been subject to selection and breeding for millennia, to produce plant forms with better agronomic traits. Many of the genetic changes associated with crop domestication have been mapped precisely, to relatively few genes. These plant varieties now produce billions of tonnes of food, materials and chemicals each year. Today, radical changes are underway for engineering of plants. New gene editing techniques have allowed genetic engineers to recapitulate ancient traits and transfer them to new species. We face the prospect of being able to systematically reprogram the growth and final form of any plant, and harness the functional diversity of plant species that have not been domesticated. But, while we have evermore-facile access to the DNA code that must be used to reprogram plant systems, the interconnections between genetic code, regulatory networks, cells and physical processes that drive emergent patterns of plant growth and form - remain ill-defined and out-of-reach for biological engineers. This proposal aims exploit a uniquely simple plant system to tackle the challenge of better understanding growth. We will use Marchantia polymorpha gemmae as a model system for direct visualisation of apical growth and manipulation of regulatory dynamics at different, interacting scales of molecules, cells, tissues and organism. We will separate interacting components using laser microscopy, in order to map functional imnteractions between cells. In addition, we are generating new markers for gene expression, and will use these to draw connections between gene activities and cell interactions.