Interactions of growth and pattern formation mechanisms in plant development

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

As an organism grows, patterns of gene expression emerge which are instrumental in shaping a variety of organs and structures. Interactions between gene expression and morphology are complex and little understood. Part of the problem lies in a lack of methods for assessing tissue growth and patterning quantitatively.  Leaves provide a particularly interesting system for investigating the relationships between growth and patterning, as vein pattern formation and leaf growth are closely coupled, and the plant hormone auxin plays a major role in both processes.  This proposal aims at investigating the link between auxin transport, growth and vein pattern formation in a quantitative way. First, I will investigate spacing mechanisms leading to vein formation as leaves grow, using vein pattern analysis software I developed. Second, I will investigate the generality of patterning mechanisms between species, and between leaves and petals, in three model species. Third, I will develop a method for monitoring leaf growth during the vein patterning phase of leaf development, which will make it possible to test the interactions between vein patterning and growth quantitatively. Fourth, I will investigate the effect of auxin flow direction on cell polarity and growth using plant cell cultures.  This work will bring new insights in vein pattern formation and growth processes, and will provide a strong basis for exploring pattern formation mechanisms using simulation modeling. We believe that the combined use of computational and experimental work will be a key instrument for understanding mechanisms of plant morphogenesis. Potential applications include horticulture and crop amelioration, as plant vasculature is closely related to plant morphology and biomass. We also believe this research will have a major impact in the field of developmental biology as a whole, as it represents one of the first attempts to investigate the relations between growth and pattern formation. Domains of application outside plant biology include cancer biology (control of tumor morphogenesis).