CRC seminar | Martin Bayer - Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP)

Bi-weekly seminar series of the CRC 1644 on plant phenotypic plasticity.

Invited guest speaker:

Martin Bayer from Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), Tübingen, on

“How parental factors shape the plant embryo”

Abstract 
Breaking symmetry by asymmetric cell divisions is essential for establishing different cell identities in multi-cellular development. Cell-cell signaling by receptor kinase/MAP kinase signaling pathways seems to be a reoccurring mechanism in polarizing cells and establishing different cell identities in the daughter cell of asymmetric cell divisions in land plants.
We are using the early Arabidopsis embryo as system to study initial events in cell polarization by the ERECTA-YODA signaling pathway – a prototype receptor kinase/MAP kinase signaling pathway.
Plant embryogenesis resembles a linear system of developmental progression with successive asymmetric cell divisions that produce the primary tissue types of the plant seedling and establish the stem cell niches of the shoot and root. By comparing the function of the ERECTA-YODA pathway in the embryo with its role in planar patterning of the leaf epidermis, we identified principal functions of a core pathway and context-specific modifications. 
New data sheds light on the impact of polar YODA activation on early embryonic patterning and how both parents influence the early embryonic development. We will highlight the mechanism and evolution of distinct modes of YDA activation in the zygote on a molecular and structural level. We furthermore discuss possible benefits of different modes of YDA activation and their distinct parent-of-origin effects.