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The evolution of developmental mechanisms in fern shoots

Reference	BB/C513069/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Jane Langdale
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Oxford
Department	Plant Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	281,966
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/2005
End date	31/03/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The earliest vascular plants had branched shoots but no lateral organs. Leaves evolved on these shoots on a number of independent occasions. In each case, leaf formation involved a switch from indeterminate meristematic growth in the shoot to determinate lateral organ growth. Recent work has demonstrated that the same genetic pathway is utilised for leaf formation in highly diverged land plant lineages, namely the lycophytes and angiosperms. The parallel recruitment of this conserved pathway suggests that the evolution of leaves was constrained by developmental mechanisms that operated in the context of the primitive plant shoot. In this proposal, we will examine how the pathway operates in ferns. We are uniquely placed to examine leaf formation in two model ferns and in two closely related non-model species that have adapted leaf morphology to distinct environments. Specifically, we will use the model ferns to assess how the pathway operates in the gametophyte versus the sporophyte generation and to determine whether growth patterns in indeterminate fern leaves mimic patterns in indeterminate angiosperm shoots. In the non-model species, we will determine how the pathway has been modified during the course of evolution to bring about adaptive leaf morphology. This combination of approaches will provide significant insight into mechanisms that operate to facilitate evolutionary change.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Genes & Developmental Biology (GDB)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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