Mechanotransduction in Development
The team focuses on morphogenesis at the shoot apex, and more precisely at the shoot apical meristem and in flower primordia.
Our research can be grouped into four categories:
Mechanics and Development Morphodynamics
Mécanique et développement
Leader : Olivier Hamant
Development relies on a complex network of molecular effectors that ultimately modify the mechanical properties of cells and control shape changes. In turn, mechanical forces can also feedback on the molecular network to govern development. Several mechanosensitive proteins have been identified in animals but their role in multicellular development remains poorly documented. Plants are ideal systems to study mechanotransduction in development because their mechanics is mainly mediated by the cell wall. We have already characterized the response of microtubules to mechanical stress using a set of micromechanical tools (e.g. Hamant et al., 2008 Science, Uyttewaal et al., 2012 Cell) and we propose to investigate the role of mechanotrasnduction in plant development, using Arabidopsis cell culture, cotyledons and shoot apical meristems as experimental systems.
Morphodynamics
Leader : Jan Traas
Plant architecture largely depends on a group of stem cells called meristems, which initiate organ and determine their position. As a consequence, meristems are responsible for a number of obvious agronomic traits. It is therefore important to study them and understand how they function.
The aim of our project is to understand the function of the shoot apical meristem, which generates all the aerial parts of the plant. In particular, we investigate the initiation of floral buds in the model plant Arabidopsis. In order to better understand this process, we use molecular genetic and genomic approaches combined to live imaging. We conduct multiscale analyses at different levels, from molecule to tissue in order to integrate them and try to understand how gene regulatory networks control shapes.
In parallel, we develop modeling approaches in order to integrate our results in a virtual meristem, which will be used to formulate new hypotheses.
