Friday March 7th 12:30h. Conference Hall, 3rd floor, IBMCP
Prof. Miltos Tsiantis
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
“From genotype to phenotype in leaf development and evolution”
Abstract
A key challenge in biology is to understand how diversity in organismal form is generated. While key regulators that shape the body plans of model organisms have been identified, less is known about how the balance of conservation versus divergence of different developmental pathways influences cell growth to generate morphological diversity. To help address this issue, we developed the Arabidopsis thaliana relative Cardamine hirsute into a versatile system for studying morphological evolution. We use a combination of genetics, advanced imaging and computational modelling to understand the mechanisms through which leaf morphology evolved in these species, resulting in simple leaves in A. thaliana and complex leaves divided to leaflets in C. hirsuta. This presentation will discuss our findings on identifying such mechanisms and in conceptualizing how they regulate the number, position and timing of leaflet production. It will also consider progress towards understanding the basis for interspecific variation in C. hirsute leaf form and is physiological significance.
Short Bio
Prof. Miltos Tsiantis completed his undergraduate studies in Biology at the University of Athens (1992) and his PhD at the University of Oxford (1997). Following this, he carried out his postdoctoral research at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, as a Glasstone Research Fellow (1996-99) and as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (1999). During that time, he was also a visiting research fellow at the Plant Gene Expression Center, University of California, Berkeley, funded by HFSP and the Company of Biologists.
Following this, he received a Browne Research Fellowship to conduct independent research until 2003. From 2003 to 2008, he was appointed University Lecturer in Developmental Biology at the University of Oxford, later advancing to Reader in 2009 and Professor of Plant Developmental Genetics from 2009 to 2013. During this period, he also held positions as Tutorial Fellow in Biology (2002-2010) and Senior Research Fellow in Biology (2010-2013) at Wadham College, where he served as Dean from 2009 to 2010.
In 2013, Prof. Tsiantis assumed the position of Director of the Department of Comparative Development and Genetics and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. He was appointed an Honorary Professor at the University of Cologne in 2014.
Selected Awards
- BBSRC Research Development Fellowship (2010-2013)
- EMBO Membership (2010)
- Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award (2007)
- Balfour Lecturer of the Genetics Society (2007)
- President’s Medal of the Society of Experimental Biology (2004)
Paper:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2321877121
If anyone is interested in meeting with the speaker, please contact Paz Merelo
