Signaling cascades involved in sexual plant reproduction from pollen tube guidance to fetilization and embryogenesis

一个一直引人入胜的故事是受精如何激活新一代的出现，以及细胞信号如何渗透到植物发育的每一个方面。利用多种实验方法，包括细胞生物学、生物化学、分子遗传学、基因组学和蛋白质组学，我们的研究重点是破译蛋白激酶级联在植物生殖发育中的作用。以一种茄属植物和模式植物拟南芥为研究对象，我们正在研究与系统发育相关的MAPKKK家族的三个小成员的参与。这些MAPKKK参与了雄性和雌性生殖发育的各个方面，包括胚珠被和胚囊发育。这些基因突变的一个副作用是减少或缺乏花粉管对胚珠的引导，这也是激烈研究的主题。除了了解这些微妙而相互关联的信号网络如何作用于器官发育和有性生殖的基础知识外，所提出的工作还与农学目标直接相关，包括孤雌生殖以及通过更有效的系统发育上相近的物种杂交扩大基因库。

One ever-fascinating story is how fertilization activates the emergence of a new generation and how cellular signaling pervades every single aspect of plant development. Using a wide variety of experimental approaches, encompassing cell biology, biochemistry, molecular genetics, genomics and proteomics, our research effort focuses on deciphering the role of protein kinase cascades in plant reproductive development. Working with a solanaceous species as well as with the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, we are studying the involvement of a phylogenetically related small three members MAPKKK family. These MAPKKK are involved in various aspects of both male and female reproductive development, including ovule integument and embryo sac development. One side effect of mutations in these genes is the reduction or absence of pollen tube guidance towards the ovules, which is also the subject of intense studies. Besides from the fundamental knowledge to be gained on how these subtle and interconnected signaling networks act on organ development and sexual reproduction, the proposed work also have direct relevance towards agronomical goals, including parthenocarpy as well as widening gene pools through more efficient hybridization of phylogenetically close species.