Identifying genes underlying root sucker formation in crucifer plants

This project will be supervised by Miltos Tsiantis at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Abstract:

Clonal reproduction provides certain seed plants with the opportunity to spawn large numbers of clonal individuals in the absence of fertilization. Root sucker formation is a mechanism by which somatic cells of the root spontaneously change their developmental path and give rise to hundreds of clonal offspring. This trait is understudied owing to the scarcity of systems where genetics and advanced imaging can be employed for in-depth studies. We will to address this problem by developing a diploid Cardamine species as a powerful experimental system for this purpose. This species reproduces not only sexually, but also asexually via root suckers. How root suckers form and how the plant determines the balance between sexual and asexual reproduction is unknown. Close relatives include Arabidopsis thaliana, the best-characterized plant genetic system, and Cardamine hirsuta, a model system that we developed for comparative studies. Yet, neither of these two species form root suckers. In this project we will leverage this difference between closely related species to elucidate, at single-cell level, the molecular genetic basis for root sucker development. To jump-start this work, we have in place a genome assembly, genetic transformation and resources for forward and reverse genetics approaches. This project was recently (June 2025) funded by an ERC Advanced grant to the PI and the PhD project will take place within the frame of that project.

Group homepage: https://www.mpipz.mpg.de/tsiantis

Representive publication of the research group: Z.-L. Hu, et al. (2024) A CUC1/auxin genetic module links cell polarity to patterned tissue growth and leaf shape diversity in crucifer plants, PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2321877121