Paper on moss branching out :-)

 

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.

Paper on moss form diversification accepted

A pleurocarpus moss showing 

clustered sporophytes on top 

of a highly branched gametophore

(Photo: www.musgosdechile.cl)

Yoan Coudert, Neil Bell, Claude Edelin and I have been working together on the developmental basis of branching form diversfication in mosses. Our bayesian character mapping demonstrates a series of innovations giving rise to shape variation in pleurocarpus species, and the results will be published soon in New Phytologist. 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.

Great opportunity for early career resaerchers in Bristol

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/vc-fellowships/about/

Summer studentship opportunity

The British Society for Developmental Biology has advertised funded 8-week summer studentships in this link.

I would welcome applications from undergraduate students interested in starting work to identify mechanisms for branching in the lycophyte, Selaginella kraussiana.

Polar auxin transport is a key determinant of branch initiation and branch outgrowth in flowering plants such as Arabidopsis. Axial polar auxin transport is conserved between moss and vascular plant sporophytes, and transport via PIN proteins may have been involved in the innovation of sporophytic branching. However, links between polar auxin transport and branching remain to de demonstrated in seedless vascular plants. This project will use a combination of surgical and molecular approaches to identify such links.

If you are interested in coming to do the project in my lab, please get in touch by the end of february with a CV including the names of two referees, and an explaination of the reasons why you would like to come.

My e-mail address is jill.harrison@bristol.ac.uk.

Congratulations to Zoe Nemec Venza

Zoe has been awarded funding to attend the Interdisciplinary Spring School on Plant and Animal Morphogenesis that will be held in Montpellier from 25th February to 4th March.

The workshop will focus mainly on how genetics and evolution determine morphogenesis in plant and animal development, but there will be also an introduction on how to apply computational modelling to developmental studies.
It will benefit her PhD studies on the role of CLAVATA genes on morphogenesis in the moss, Physcomitrella patens.

Dispatch on Jeremy's paper

Thanks to Lilan Hong and Adrienne Roeder for their nice dispatch on our recent paper on Marchantia shape determination.

Evo-devo themed Phil Trans issue out

Cheryll Tickle and Araxi Urrutia have put together a themed Phil Trans B issue on evo-devo research. There is a broad selection of papers, mainly on animal evolution and development, but there are also two on plant evo-devo.

My review covers genetic and developmental changes in the radiation of plant body plans, and will be useful to undergraduate and palaeo MSc students at Bristol taking the ‘flowering plants’ module. The Soltis lab reviews the evolution of floral diversity.

Cheryll and Araxi have written an interesting overview of the issue including perspectives on the history and goals of evo-devo research and the current state of play.

You can access the papers here.