Dr Edwige Moyroud
Edwige joined the group in April 2011 as a Junior Research Fellow (Queens' College, Cambridge) and Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow following a PhD at the University of Grenoble and the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon, France. Her doctoral research focused on the properties of the LEAFY gene, a central regulator of flower development, which is also linked with the emergence of angiosperms. She used Arabidopsis as a model system to develop new protocols to study the interaction between transcription factors and DNA and then used these new methods to explore the function of LEAFY homologues in various species, including non-flowering plants, such as Welwitschia mirabilis, a gymnosperm from the Namibian desert.
During her post-doctoral work, she will attempt to identify some of the molecular mechanisms producing iridescence in flowers. Iridescence is very common in the animal kingdom and is responsible for the bright blue wings of Morpho butterflies and the striking appearance of jewel beetles but it has only recently been identified in flowers. Iridescence is generated by the interaction of light with minute structures organized on or just below the surface of organisms, thus creating visible colours that are independent of chemical pigments. This iridescent effect, which can be used by pollinators to detect flowers, is due to ordered striations (like those on a CD) of the cuticle on the petal epidermis but how and when these features develop is unknown. To unveil the genetic mechanisms behind iridescence, she will carry out high-throughput molecular studies along with microscopic observations and biochemical analysis using Venice Mallow (Hibiscus trionum) as a model species. With this project, she hopes to discover original developmental pathways, used by flowering plants to shape their surfaces and communicate with insects.
Contact:
- Email: Edwige.Moyroud@plantsci.cam.ac.uk
- Tel: 01223 (3)33934
Publications:
Moyroud, E., Minguet, E.G., Ott, F., Yant, L., Pose, D., Monniaux, M., Blanchet, S., Bastien, O., Thevenon, E., Weigel, D., Schmid, M., and Parcy, F. (2011). Prediction of regulatory interactions from genome sequences using a biophysical model for the arabidopsis LEAFY transcription factor. The Plant Cell 23, 1293-1306.
Moyroud, E., Kusters, E., Monniaux, M., Koes, R., and Parcy, F. (2010) LEAFY blossoms. Trends in Plant Science 15, 346-352.
Moyroud, E., Reymond, M.C., Hames, C., Parcy, F., and Scutt, C.P. (2009). The analysis of entire gene promoters by surface plasmon resonance. Plant Journal 59, 851-858.
Moyroud, E., Tichtinsky, G., and Parcy, F. (2009). The LEAFY floral regulators in angiosperms: conserved proteins with diverse roles. Journal of Plant Biology 52, 177-185.
Hames, C., Ptchelkine, D., Grimm, C., Thevenon, E., Moyroud, E., Gerard, F., Martiel, J.L., Benlloch, R., Parcy, F., and Muller, C.W. (2008). Structural basis for LEAFY floral switch function and similarity with helix-turn-helix proteins. EMBO Journal 27, 2628-2637.
Frohlich, M.W., and Moyroud, E. (2008). An easily built diffuse illumination system effective at both very low and moderate magnifications, for observing in situ stained slides. Journal of Microscopy 230, 160-162.
