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SUMMARY:The control of flowering time - Richard Morris\, JIC
DTSTART:20120126T160000Z
DTEND:20120126T170000Z
UID:TALK31555@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jill Harrison
DESCRIPTION:Flowering is a key adaptive trait in plants and involves a maj
 or reprogramming of development\, during which groups of undifferentiated 
 cells on the flanks of the shoot apex (primordia) are specified to form fl
 owers instead of leaves. Typically for higher plants\, Arabidopsis thalian
 a integrates environmental and endogenous signals to precisely regulate fl
 owering time. Once initiated\, the floral transition is rapid and irrevers
 ible on the flanks of the shoot\, while nearby cells in the centre of the 
 apex are maintained in an undifferentiated state\, supporting future meris
 tematic growth. As well as requiring precise temporal control\, flowering 
 is tightly spatially regulated in the plant. Axillary meristems\, which ar
 e located at the base of each leaf\, are maintained in a poised vegetative
  state despite the activation of flowering in the shoot apical meristem (S
 AM). To understand the underlying regulatory logic of the floral transitio
 n\, we have used a combination of modelling and experiments to define a ne
 twork of regulatory hubs. Our network predicts flowering behaviour for dif
 ferent genotypes and displays key properties of the floral transition such
  as signal integration and irreversibility. The model suggests that a prop
 ortional control mechanism may be active to flexibly counterbalance an oth
 erwise runaway feedback circuit\, allowing a pool of undifferentiated cell
 s to be maintained despite strong differentiation signals in nearby cells.
  This simple yet robust control strategy may help to understand how flower
 ing plants have been able to evolve such a diversity of life histories.   
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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