Evolution of plant developmental regulatory mechanisms
Roscoff (Brittany), France, April 30 - May 4, 2011
Deadline for application: January 25, 2011
Chairperson: Nicholas P. HARBERD
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK
Phone: 44 (0)1865 275071 – Fax: 44 (0)1865 275074
Mail : nicholas.harberd@plants.ox.ac.uk
Vice-Chairperson: Patrick ACHARD
Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS - UPR2357, 12 Rue Général Zimmer,
67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Phone: + 33 388417155 – Fax: + 33 388614442
Mail : patrick.achard@ibmp-ulp.u-strasbg.fr
Terrestrial vegetation (the land-plants) evolved from a fresh-water algal ancestor. During the colonization of the land, the land-plants evolved a suite of developmental regulatory mechanisms, many of which conferred increased adaptation to the new terrestrial environment. Accordingly, plants sense and respond to a variety of environmental cues and endogenous signals to ensure optimal growth and development in that new environment. Plant cells integrate these extrinsic and intrinsic signals via a network of transduction pathways, thus producing adaptive response outputs.
This conference examines how plant regulatory mechanisms have evolved during land-plant evolution, from several different standpoints. First, we discuss the evolution of epigenetic regulation of gene activity. Second, we discuss plant ‘evo-devo’ approaches that compare developmental regulation over relatively long evolutionary timescales: from the early diverging bryophytes to the more recent angiosperms. Third, we consider more recent adaptive changes in developmental regulation within the angiosperms. Fourth, we address the vital question of how plant response to the environment has evolved since colonization of the land. Finally, we discuss what crop plant domestication can tell us about the evolution of plant developmental regulatory mechanisms. Overall, the conference will provide a unique multidisciplinary view of current understanding of land-plant evolution, an area of intense current interest within the international biological science research community.
The conference will focus on the following topics:
- Plant Evolutionary Epigenetics: chromatin state, small RNAs and gene silencing
- From Bryophytes to Angiosperms: ‘long-term’ evolution of plant regulatory mechanisms
- ‘Short-term’ evolutionary divergence.
- Evolution of environmental adaptation
- Crop domestication and regulatory evolution
Invited speakers
(provisional titles)
ACHARD Patrick (Strasbourg, France)
GA-signaling: an evolutionary conserved mechanism for environmental adaptation?
ALLABY Robin (Warwick, United Kingdom)
Archaeogenomic evidence of recent regulatory evolution in domesticated plants
BAILEY-SERRES Julia (Riverside, USA)
Rice Sub1 determines tolerance to the progression of stresses associated with submergence
BELLINI Catherine (Umeå, Sweden)
Rooting or not rooting: dissecting the molecular mechanisms regulating adventitious rooting in Arabidopsis and poplar
BENNETT Malcolm (Nottingham, United Kingom)
Gravitropism: providing land plants with a sense of direction...
BOWMAN John (Melbourne, Australia)
Establishing polarity in land plants
CHALHOUB Boulos (Versailles, France)
Dynamics of Transposons in response to polyploidy and domestication in wheat
COEN Enrico (Norwich, United Kingdom)
From genes to shape
COLOT Vincent (Paris, France)
Impact of DNA methylation on the function and evolution of the Arabidopsis genome
COUPLAND George (Cologne, Germany)
Seasonal flowering in annual and perennial Brassicaceae species
CRESPI Martin (Gif sur Yvette, France)
Impact of non-coding RNAs in root developmental plasticity
DENG Xing-Wang (New Haven, USA)
Light control of development utilises conserved regulatory machinery
HARBERD Nicholas (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Phases in wheat domestication and evolution
HARRISON Jill (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Exploring the origin of leaves
HAY Angela (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Evolution of petal loss in Cardamine hirsute
LANGDALE Jane (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Developmental transitions in the evolution of land plant form
MENAND Benoît (Marseille, France)
Integration between environmental stress and growth in the moss Physcomitrella patens
MOLNAR Attila (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Small non-coding RNAs are mobile silencing signals in plants
NAVARRO Lionel (Strasbourg, France)
Small RNA-directed epigenetic control of the Arabidopsis innate immune response
PARCY François (Grenoble, France)
Prediction and evolution of the LEAFY regulatory network
PELSY Frédérique (Colmar, France)
Evolution of the berry colour locus through domestication and vegetative propagation of grapevine
PRIGGE Mike (San Diego, USA)
Auxin signaling in the moss Physcomitrella: the mechanism and roles
RAMEAU Catherine (Versailles, France)
Evolution of strigolactone functions in land plants
RENSING Stefan (Freiburg, Germany)
The evolution of plant transcriptional regulation: a timeline of loss, gain, expansion and correlation with morphological complexity
RUBERTI Ida (Roma, Italy)
Molecular mechanisms of plant adaptation to canopy shade
TRAAS Jan (Lyon, France)
Morphogenesis: a biophysical view on the evolution of shape
VOINNET Olivier (Strasbourg, France)
Towards a molecular understanding of epigenetic transgenerational memory in Arabidopsis
YASUMURA Yuki (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Submergence response requires ethylene signalling in Physcomitrella patens
Deadline for application: January 25, 2011
Registration fee (including board and lodging)
360 € for PhD students
580 € for other participants
Application for registration
The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should send:
- their curriculum vitae
- the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
- the abstract of their presentation
to the Chairperson of the conference before the deadline. After it, the chairman will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.