Speaker: Chi-Lien Cheng, professor in genetics and plant biology, University of Iowa

Title: Using the fern Ceratopteris richardii to investigate growth and reproduction: meristem and alternation of generations

Abstract: Ferns produce two free-living generations with gametogenesis and sporogenesis separate in time and space. This life cycle is ideal for investigation of alternation of generations via sexual or asexual reproduction. Additionally, the two-dimensional vegetative growth of the gametophytes presents a simplified form of meristem. To pursue these two lines of research, we use the fern C. richardii. We have identified physiological conditions as well as genes that promote the asexual reproduction process. The increasing complexity of the apical meristem from the gametophyte to the sporophyte generations is examined by analyzing the expression and function of known meristem maintenance genes.

Host: Steve Howell, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor

Please join us for refreshments before the seminar outside Room 1414 of the Molecular Biology Building.