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SUMMARY:High resolution imaging and characterisation of a simple plant sys
 tem: Marchantia polymorpha - Nuri Purswani
DTSTART:20130425T150000Z
DTEND:20130425T153000Z
UID:TALK44294@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Megan Cooper
DESCRIPTION:Engineering the form of multicellular organisms is extremely c
 hallenging due to their high genetic complexity and the difficulty of mani
 pulation of the tissues. \n\nThe liverwort Marchantia polymorpha (Marchant
 ia) is a simple plant with a haploid genome and low genetic redundancy. Th
 e early embryonic stages of this organism are accessible for live imaging 
 and there is no need to perforate a seed coat to visualise them. Marchanti
 a offers the added benefit that the cells on the surface and their progeny
  can be easily observed and tracked without the need for clonal markers du
 ring early embryogenesis. The procedure for genetic transformation [1] of 
 this plant is much faster than that of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis)\
 , as it only takes 7 days to obtain transgenic plants and an additional 5-
 10 days to screen transient mutants with fluorescent reporters and antibio
 tic selection. This period of time is much shorter than the time required 
 to obtain transgenic Arabidopsis plants. \n\nThis project provides a detai
 led cellular characterisation of the organism through the application of h
 igh throughput imaging (laser scanning confocal microscopy) with fluoresce
 nt proteins to mark subcellular structures\; combined with segmentation te
 chniques for detailed analysis of cell geometry [2]. We are also transferr
 ing existing genetic markers from Arabidopsis into Marchantia for the purp
 ose of future mapping and characterisation of cellular domains for enginee
 ring plant form. \n\n[1] Ishizaki K\, Chiyoda S\, Yamato K\, Kohchi T\, Pl
 ant and Cell Physiology\, 49:1084-1091 (2008) \n[2] Federici F\, Dupuy L\,
  Laplaze L\, Heisler M and Haseloff J\, Nature Methods\, 9:483-485 (2012)\
 n\n
LOCATION:Biffen Lecture Theater\, Department of Genetics
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