Tracing the Evolutionary History of Plant Developmental Mechanisms

Knowledge of the evolutionary history of genes involved in developmental processes provides a foundation for understanding how genetic networks were established and how their manipulation may influence plant growth and form. Genetic programs that direct growth and development in response to light will be examined functionally in Marchantia, a liverwort. Liverworts hold a key position in plant evolution as the sister group to all other land plants and possesses many attributes reminiscent of the ancestral land plant. This project is expected to reveal some of the ancestral mechanisms for how light regulates plant form via the hormone auxin and could in the future aid the precise design of plants for diverse agricultural applications.