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SUMMARY:Development and evolution of land plant rooting systems - Liam Dol
 an\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20160121T130000Z
DTEND:20160121T140000Z
UID:TALK63118@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:38889
DESCRIPTION:The evolution of the first rooting systems approximately 470 m
 illion years ago allowed the growth of the first complex multicellular euk
 aryotic photosynthetic organisms – plants – on the surface of the land
 . Rooting systems are important because they facilitate the uptake of ever
 y chemical element in the plant body with the exception of carbon. The roo
 ting systems of the putative earliest diverging group of land plants\, liv
 erworts\, comprised unicellular tip-growing filaments called rhizoids and 
 are morphologically similar root hairs that develop at the interface betwe
 en the plant and the soil in tracheophytes (vascular plants). The aim of o
 ur research is to define the mechanism that controlled the development of 
 the first land plant root system. We are using fossils and genes to gain a
 n understanding of ancient mechanism. A major focus is the identification 
 genes that regulate rhizoid and root hair development from epidermal cells
  in liverworts and seed plants respectively. Those regulatory motifs that 
 are common to both are likely to have been inherited from the common ances
 tor of liverworts and seed plants – close relatives of the first plants 
 to grow in the dry continental surfaces sometime in the mid Paleozoic. Rec
 ent data suggests that a common mechanism controlled the development of un
 icellular and multicellular structures that develop from the epidermis in 
 the common ancestor of land plants.\n\nRelevant publications:\n\n1. Proust
  H\, Honkanen S\, Jones V\, Morieri G\, Prescott H\, Kelly S\, Ishizaki K\
 , Kohchi T\, Dolan L (in press) RSL class I genes controlled the developme
 nt of epidermal structures in the common ancestor of land plants Current B
 iology \n\n2. Tam T\, Catarino B\, Dolan L 2015 A conserved regulatory mec
 hanism controls rooting cell development in land plants Proceedings of the
  National Academy of Sciences USA 112\, 3959–3968 doi:10.1073/pnas.14163
 24112\n\n3. Pires ND\, Keke Y\, Breuninger H\, Catarino B\, Menand B\, Dol
 an L 2013 Recruitment and remodeling of an ancient gene regulatory network
  during land plant evolution Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc
 es USA 110\, 9571-90576\n\n4. Keke Y\, Bell E\, Menand B\, Dolan L 2010 A 
 basic helix loop helix transcription factor controls cell growth and size 
 in root hairs Nature Genetics 42\, 264-267\n\n5. Menand B\, Keke Y\, Jouan
 nic S\, Hoffmann L\, Ryan E\, Linstead P\, Schaefer DG\, Dolan L 2007 An a
 ncient mechanism controls the development of cells with a rooting function
  in land plants Science 316\, 1477-1480\n
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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