BNMC Seminar:  Developmental Dynamics of Arabidopsis Primordium Formation

Marcus Heisler

Primordium formation is a fundamental developmental process in plants and animals. It involves a positioning mechanism that defines where the tissue or organ will arise as well as changes to growth and differentiation that result in outgrowth and the correct patterning of cell types. By real-time analysis of protein expression coupled with cell tracking and mathematical modeling we have started to investigate plant organ development. The picture that emerges is that of a largely self-regulating system involving polar transport of the plant morphogen auxin to position organ primordia, mediate organ growth and influence gene expression domains. Auxin transport appears to be coordinated by local cell-cell signaling and pre-existing differentiation patterns. This leads to a dynamic system in which global pattern results from local decisions by individual cells.