How do plants read their own shape? скачать в хорошем качестве

How do plants read their own shape?

Olivier Hamant, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) Plant Biology Section seminar series May 8, 2015 More seminar videos: http://plantscience.cals.cornell.edu Abstract: Olivier Hamant and his team made a significant discovery by demonstrating how mechanical forces interact with an organism’s regulatory gene network to determine its shape and size. The 38 year-old scientist is a skilled interdisciplinarian who likes to mingle molecular genetics, micromechanics and new imaging technology to add new interest to an age-old subject. In 2013, he received a grant from the European Research Council for his project which aims at identifying how mechanical signals are perceived and interpreted by the plant to control its growth. He completed his PhD in 2002 at INRA Versailles and at the VIB in Flanders, Belgium, on the molecular aspects of plant architecture, notably showing how the gaseous hormone ethylene regulates the activity of developmental master genes. He completed post-doctoral work in the United States at the University of California at Berkeley on a completely different subject: meiosis in corn. He identified and characterised two proteins which control chromosome segregation and, by extension, heredity. Olivier began working at INRA in 2007 in the Plant Development and Reproduction Laboratory at the ENS in Lyon. His work juggles physics, biology and imaging. As he puts it: “our work equates ideas and tests hypotheses. My focus is on mechanical feedback: when a plant grows, so do its cells, which must grapple with certain mechanical forces. What role do these forces play? Do cells use these forces to control shape changes? This type of basic research seems highly abstract at first glance, but is a key ingredient in predictive biology and plant breeding!”