Developmental evolution of sex-specific mechanisms underlying the Retinoblastoma pathway in the control of gametic cell fate and differentiation in plants

今天高度专业化的高等植物是如何从低等植物或其他早期生命形式进化而来的，这是一个谜。而单倍体叶状配子体在低等谱系中占优势，如苔藓（如。在有花植物（例如立碗藓属（Physcomitrella））中，有花植物（例如拟南芥）具有显性二倍体叶状孢子体和依赖的携带配子的单倍体配子体，其也被称为雄性和雌性生殖系。随着陆地植物从古生代到新生代的进化，从配子体到孢子体的优势地位的转变，预计基因调控网络中的新功能和/或亚功能化。拟议的Emmy Noether研究小组将研究在两个不同的植物模型系统拟南芥和立碗藓中，由进化上古老的转录因子模块共同进化调节的生殖系的模式化和细胞分化。特别是，适应性进化的性别特异性，遗传和表观遗传机制的基础植物视网膜母细胞瘤调控途径在生殖系发育将进行调查。

It is an enigma how the highly specialised higher plants of today evolved from lower plants or other early life forms. Whereas the haploid leafy gametophyte dominated in lower lineages such as mosses (eg. Physcomitrella), the flowering plants (e.g. Arabidopsis) have a dominant diploid leafy sporophyte and dependent gamete-bearing haploid gametophytes, which are also known as the male and female germlines. Concomitant with the shift in dominance from gametophyte to sporophyte along the evolution of the land plants from Paleozoic to Cenozoic era, neo- and/or subfunctionalisation in gene regulatory networks is anticipated. The proposed Emmy Noether research group will examine how patterning and cell differentiation of germlines regulated by evolutionarily ancient transcription factor modules co-evolved in two divergent plant model systems Arabidopsis and Physcomitrella. In particular, adaptive evolution of sex-specific, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying plant Retinoblastoma regulatory pathways during germline development will be investigated.