DynaMo Seminar: Thomas Greb

DNRF Center DynaMo hosts a series of public seminars. Our guest on 25 November is:

Dr. Thomas GrebGregor

Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology

How to teach an old dog a new trick:
Lateral growth initiation in the Arabidopsis stem

Coordinating the function of single cells in multicellular organisms requires an extreme degree of complexity with respect to cell‐to‐cell communication during growth and activity of such systems. Plants are extraordinary in this context as cell fate is rather flexible and depends on the constant adjustment by endogenous and external cues. In our lab we established lateral growth of the Arabidopsis stem as a model for investigating cell fate determination and growth processes in highly differentiated environments. Shoot apex-derived auxin is essential for lateral growth initiation and by following pharmacological and candidate gene approaches we aim for enlightening the “black box” between auxin accumulation and cell proliferation. Interestingly, tissue-specific transcriptional profiling and a forward mutagenesis screen both targeting meristem initiation in stems argue for a major change in cell wall properties as an early and essential event during this process. By generating a tissue-specific expression map of the Arabidopsis stem, we are in the process of building the base for a systems-oriented understanding of the initiation of lateral plant growth. Overall, we envisage that our approach will help to understand the establishment of distinct plant growth forms in ontogenetic and phylogenetic contexts.

Dr. Thomas Greb is a Junior Group Leader studying development of vascular tissue in plants at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria. He holds a PhD degree from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany, obtained in 2003. 2003-06 he worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK in the laboratory of Professor Caroline Dean. In 2006 he joined the Gregor Mendel Institute and in 2012 he obtained his Habilitation (postdoctoral lecturer qualification) from University of Vienna.