Cell cycle reprogramming during xylem development
Final Report Abstract
Plant xylem tissues serve an important dual role during growth and development of plants as they are required for both physical support and water transport. Moreover, modulation of xylem characteristics like size and the number of xylem vessel elements provides a vital mechanism to cope with harsh environmental conditions such as heat and drought. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory network of xylem development would greatly benefit gene editing for agriculture and crop breeding efforts. Although xylem development has been investigated over the past decades, one key aspect found in most highly differentiated plant tissues has been neglected in the field of vascular development thus far: the switch from mitosis to endoreduplication. My findings suggest that endoreduplication onset not only occurs in maturing xylem cells, but also that inhibition leads to alterations in xylem morphology. I thus aim to identify and characterize the molecular players controlling endoreduplication onset during xylem differentiation by i) identifying regulators of endoreduplication onset by inferring and validating Gene Regulatory Networks, ii) functionally characterizing these novel regulators in detail and iii) assessing the physiological relevance of a timely endoreduplication onset under abiotic stress conditions. I curated a list of candidate genes predicted to strongly contribute to xylem development. I generated stable transgenic plant lines which I partially analyzed with respect to physiological defects during xylem development. In long term, my findings will not only advance our fundamental understanding of xylem differentiation; but can also benefit applied research projects, that use the resulting knowledge to optimize plant growth in a changing environment.
