Interactions between growth and pattern formation during development

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Interactions between gene expression and morphology are complex and little understood. As plants and animals evolved multicellularity independently, it would be particularly fascinating to find out to what extent mechanisms of morphogenesis are similar or differ across kingdoms. Current data suggests similarities in the mechanisms driving bony ray pattern formation in growing fish fins and vascular patterns in growing plant leaves. We will combine experimental and computational approaches to uncover fundamental mechanisms that coordinate the development of network structures (leaf veins, fin bony rays) with growth in developing multicellular appendages (leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana, fins of Danio rerio). Auxin is a plant hormone involved in leaf growth and leaf vein pattern formation, and is therefore a key component of the mechanism coordinating both processes. We will first test the effect of local auxin production in leaves on growth patterns and venation patterns, using novel microscopy and computational methods recently developed in the lab. We will also investigate the genetic basis for leaf vein pattern and leaf shape variation, by doing a comparative analysis of growth and vein patterning in multiple vein patterning and leaf shape mutants. The resulting data will be used to build and test simulation models of vein pattern formation in growing leaves. In parallel, we will use similar methodologies to characterize growth patterns and bone pattern formation in fish fins. Comparing morphogenetic mechanisms between plant leaves and fish fins may allow us to propose a unifying theory on the coupling of growth and patterning.Long term, potential applications include 1) horticulture and crop amelioration, as leaf size and plant vasculature are closely correlated to plant morphology and biomass, 2) regenerative medicine, as Danio rerio (the zebrafish) is emerging as a model system to study fundamental mechanisms of bone growth and regeneration.