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CATEGORIES:Plant Sciences Research Seminars
SUMMARY:Looking at the genes behind Darwin’s abominable my
 stery - Edwige Moyroud\, Molecular Development
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20120302T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20120302T133000
UID:TALK35546AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/35546
DESCRIPTION:Darwin was bothered by what he perceived to be an 
 abrupt origin and highly accelerated rate of diver
 sification of flowering plants. Recent advances in
  molecular biology provide us with new tools to lo
 ok at this ‘abominable mystery’.\n\nFirst\, I will
  present some of the results obtained during my Ph
 D\, focusing on LEAFY (LFY)\, a unique plant trans
 cription factor. LFY is a central regulator of flo
 ral development also present in non-flowering plan
 ts. Consequently a change in its properties has of
 ten been invoked to explain the origin of flowers\
 , but experimental evidence has been lacking. I se
 t up a SELEX experiment coupled with Illumina sequ
 encing to exhaustively characterize its DNA bindin
 g specificity. This experiment led to a biophysica
 l model that I validated in vitro and in vivo (ChI
 P-seq). This demonstrates the usefulness of such a
 n approach to predict target genes of a given tran
 scription factor. Then\, I tested if LFY DNA bindi
 ng specificity is different in non-flowering plant
 s and established that a pre-floral network was al
 ready functioning in gymnosperms\, the sister-grou
 p of flowering plants.\n\nTo conclude my talk\, I 
 will briefly present my current research project. 
 The interaction between flowers and pollinators ha
 s probably contributed to the rapid diversificatio
 n of angiosperms. Plants\, like animals\, can prod
 uce vivid colour using nanostructures on their sur
 face instead of using pigments. Iridescence is an 
 example of a structural colour effect that bumbleb
 ees can use as a clue to detect flowers. As nothin
 g is known about the development of such structure
 s\, I am investigating the genetic basis of photon
 ic nanostructures in nature\, using Hibiscus as a 
 new model species.\n
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theat
 re
CONTACT:
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