Yoan Coudert, Neil Bell, Claude Edelin and I have been working together
on the developmental basis of branching form diversfication in mosses, and our paper in New Phytologist is out today here.
Our bayesian character mapping demonstrates a series of innovations
giving rise to shape variation in pleurocarpus species. In combination with predictions made by modelling and developmental genetics from our eLIFE
(2015) paper, the results provide a framework for identifying the
mechanisms that allowed diverse moss forms to arise during evolution.
Yoan's ATIP-Avenir fellowship in France aims to realise this goal, and
his research is likely to reveal fundamental insights into patterning
mechanisms in plants.
