Molecular Genetics of Plant Development

Sexual reproduction in flowering plants involves several cell fate transitions: (i) vegetative-to-reproductive transition of the apical meristem, (ii) reprogramming of floral somatic cells to generate the gametic progenitors (micro/mega-spore mother cells), (iii) differentiation of specialized gametes, (iv) fertilization and development of a totipotent embryo. These transitions occurring in the adult plant illustrate the remarkable plasticity of plant cells, unlike animals’ which are committed early during embryogenesis. My research focuses on transitions and cell fate reprogramming in the transitions (ii-iv) and investigates two critical aspects:
    (1) From the diploid gamete progenitor to the differentiated gametes the plant chromatin seem to undergo dramatic and dynamic changes not only in histone/DNA modifications but also in structural organisation (fig1) and in core nucleosome constituent, as seen in chromatin staining and GFP reporter studies.  We are investigating these key processes underlying fate reprogramming. 
    (2) fertilization unites two parental genomes to form a totipotent embryo; yet parental alleles do not contribute in an equal way to the embryonic transcriptome which remains massively maternally dominant, as seen in allele-specific profiling experiments (fig 2).

• Seeds – An evolutionary innovation underlying reproductive success in flowering plants
  Baroux, C; Grossniklaus, U
  PLANT DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION, 131 605-+; 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2018.11.017 2019
  Current Topics in Developmental Biology
• Meeting report - INDEPTH kick-off meeting
  Parry, G; Probst, AV; Baroux, C; Tatout, C
  JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE, 131 (12):10.1242/jcs.220558 JUN 2018
• Aberrant imprinting may underlie evolution of parthenogenesis
  Kirioukhova, O; Shah, JN; Larsen, DS; Tayyab, M; Mueller, NE; Govind, G; Baroux, C; Federer, M; Gheyselinck, J; Barrell, PJ; Ma, H; Sprunck, S; Huettel, B; Wallace, H; Grossniklaus, U; Johnston, AJ
  SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27863-7 JUL 13 2018
• PHO1 Exports Phosphate from the Chalazal Seed Coat to the Embryo in Developing Arabidopsis Seeds 
  Vogiatzaki, Evangelia; Baroux, Celia; Jung, Ji-Yul; et al. 
  CURRENT BIOLOGY, 27 (19): 10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.026  OCT 9 2017
• Phylogeny-Based Systematization of Arabidopsis Proteins with Histone H1 Globular Domain 
  Kotlinski, Maciej; Knizewski, Lukasz; Muszewska, Anna; et al. 
  PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, 174 (1): 27-34, 10.1104/pp.16.00214 MAY 2017
• Unreeling the chromatin thread: a genomic perspective on organization around the periphery of the Arabidopsis nucleus 
  Barneche, Fredy; Baroux, Celia 
  GENOME BIOLOGY, 18, 10.1186/s13059-017-1239-6  MAY 23 2017
• Non-random chromosome arrangement in triploid endosperm nuclei 
  Baroux, Celia; Pecinka, Ales; Fuchs, Joerg; et al. 
  CHROMOSOMA, 126 (1): 115-124, 10.1007/s00412-016-0578-5   FEB 2017 
• The Maternal-to-Zygotic Transition in Flowering Plants: Evidence, Mechanisms, and Plasticity 
  Baroux, Celia; Grossniklaus, Ueli 
  MATERNAL-TO-ZYGOTIC TRANSITION, 113: 351-371 2015 Review; Book Chapter (Details)

• Chromatin dynamics during female gametogenesis reprogramming
• Dynamic parental contributions to the early embryonic transcriptome