Workshop on Systems Biology, Thu, 08 Nov, 2007
Speaker: Bruce Shapiro
Abstract
The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is a dome-shaped
collection of cells at the apex of growing plants from which all above-ground tissue ultimately derives. In Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), a small flowering weed of the Brassicaceae family (related to mustard and cabbage), the SAM typically contains some three to five hundred cells that range from five to ten microns in diameter. These cells are organized into several distinct zones that maintain their topological and functional relationships throughout the life of the plant. As the plant grows, organs (primordia) form on its surface flanks in a phyllotactic pattern that develop into new shoots, leaves, and flowers. The central region contains pluripotent stem cells that continue to divide and differentiate into mature tissue throughout the life of the plant.
In the computable plant project we observe several cell type-specific markers for growth and differentiation in live Arabidopsis plants with a dedicated confocal laser scanning microscope. These markers are affixed to various gene products or promoter regions using green fluorescent protein (GFP) variants that flouresce when they are illuminated within the microscope by a laser. This
allows us to observe various meristem and floral primordial features, such as membranes and nuclei, and to track specific cell lineages over time. By fitting computational models to these spatiotemporal expression patterns, we can infer how primordial cells are progressively specified and organs develop. From this we develop forward simulations and visualizations of the growing SAM. The talk will survey the modeling techniques and tools used and the modeling results produced in the computable plant project.
URL: www.ricam.oeaw.ac.at/specsem/ssqbm/participants/abstracts/index.php
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