Title: "Understanding floral adaptations that promote outcrossing"

Speaker: Prof. Michael Lenhard, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany

Abstract:

Flowering plants have evolved many adaptations to promote outbreeding. In one group of such adaptations, individuals in a population fall into two classes that place their pollen on different positions on pollinators’ bodies, such that the pollen can be efficiently picked up by the stigmas of the other class and vice versa. This is based on the reciprocal spatial separation of male and female organs in flowers of the two classes. Such separation of the reproductive organs can occur along the proximo-distal axis of the flower, or in dorso-ventrally asymmetrical flowers also along the dorso-ventral or the left-right axis. We are studying the molecular and genetic basis of the differences between the two classes of individuals for several examples with organ separation along one of the three axes mentioned. I will present an update of our recent progress, highlighting commonalities in the underlying genomic architecture and insights into the molecular control mechanisms.