Europäisches Pflanzenembryologie-Konsortium

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Gerd Jürgens; Professor Dr. Thomas Laux; Dr. Michael Nodine; Professor Dr. Ben Scheres; Professor Dolf Weijers, Ph.D.
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Zell- und Entwicklungsbiologie der Pflanzen
• Förderung: Förderung von 2014 bis 2018
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 243730517

• Erstellungsjahr: 2018

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Understanding the genetic mechanisms that control plant development is key to developing novel crops with improved yield traits. Plant development relies on the continuous formation of new organs, each consisting of multiple cell types, by meristems – stem cell groups at the growth tips. While meristems are active throughout plant life, they are initially specified in the early embryo. In this collaborative project, 5 European groups have combined their efforts to dissect the genetic control of tissue and stem cell specification in the early Arabidopsis embryo. Each group focused on a single, crucial aspect of plant development, and generated genome-wide data on cell type-specific gene expression, as well as genomic binding sites for key developmental regulators. The project has delivered new insights into the cellular decisions underlying cell fate specification. New genes have been identified that are activated in the embryonic cell lineage at the earliest stages of embryogenesis, several of which were shown to be important for embryo development. Likewise, sets of genes were identified that are activated either in the first epidermal cells, or in the first precursor of the ground tissue and vascular tissues, and their further analysis will reveal the mechanisms underlying the formation of these tissues. Furthermore, the function of shoot- and root-specifying transcription factors was dissected in the embryo, and finally, many new potential roles for microRNAs were discovered in the control of embryo development. The individual subprojects within the EURO-PEC project, as well as the integration of data across subprojects, has provided a rich substrate for future investigations on the molecular and genetic mechanisms controlling plant embryo development, and datasets generated during this project are compiled in a user-friendly open network portal.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

• (2014), Science 345, 1255215
  De Rybel et al.
  
• (2015), Dev. Cell 35, 432-443
  Vera-Sirera et al.
  
• (2016), Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 32, 47-75
  Palovaara et al.
  
• (2016), Plant J., 88: 694-701
  Dastidar et al.
  
• (2016). Mol. Plant 9, 1028-1039
  Dolzblasz et al.
  
• (2017), Nature Plants 3, 894-904
  Palovaara et al.
  
• (2017). Dev. Cell 40, 264–27
  Zhang et al.