Submitted by Helen C. Scott on Fri, 27/03/2015 - 13:18
Yoan Coudert and Jill Harrison have been working closely with Wojtek Palubicki and Ottoline Leyser at the Sainsbury Laboratory and others to work out what regulates gametophytic branching in mosses.
They have used a combination of developmental, genetic and computational techniques to tackle the problem, and the results are out in eLIFE.
The work shows that although the same hormonal cues regulate flowering plant and moss branching patterns, their mode of action is distinct in each group.
It paves the way for new understanding of patterning mechanisms in plants, and for Yoan's future plans to identify the mechanisms underpinning the diversification of moss architecture.