Abstract Detail

The Role of Boundaries in Plant Diversification

Bartlett, Madelaine [1].

Boundaries between organs and organ identities in floral development and evolution.

Once you start looking, you can't help but see boundaries everywhere in floral development and evolution. There are boundaries between organs, boundaries and sliding boundaries between one organ identity and another, and boundaries between domains in the proteins that regulate flower development. I will present work from my lab that explores some of the boundaries in floral evo-devo that we have started to notice in our system (maize), and that we are working to understand. I will talk about variation in organ identity, the interaction between neighboring organ series in floral development, and a genetic mutant of maize where the boundaries between organs are blurred. I will also explore some of our work exploring protein-protein interaction hotspots between domain boundaries in the transcription factors that regulate flower development, and how variation in protein-protein interactions might affect sharp boundaries between organ identities. Our work is helping to elucidate the genes and gene networks that regulate floral development in maize and the grass family more broadly, and how these developmental processes have changed over the course of evolution.

1 - University of Massachusetts Amherst, Biology, 611 North Pleasant Street, 374 Morrill IV South, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

Keywords:
flower development
Evo-devo
MADS-box genes
PISTILLATA
organ identity
floral evolution
Poaceae.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY7, The Role of Boundaries in Plant Diversification - with Presentation of Pelton Award to Dr. Shirley Tucker
Location: Sundance 3/Omni Hotel
Date: Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
Time: 2:15 PM
Number: SY7003
Abstract ID:32
Candidate for Awards:None