Grand challenge to re-engineer flower secures prestigious grant

A collaboration of plant scientists from Europe and Australia, including Associate Professor Marcus Heisler from the University of Sydney, has been awarded a prestigious A$17 million ERC Synergy grant aimed at tackling one of the most complex challenges in biological sciences – understanding how multicellular organisms generate their intricate forms.

Despite substantial advancements in the field, the ability to predictively model and re-engineer developmental processes remains a grand challenge. This research is not only fundamental to our understanding of plant biology but also critical for advancing regenerative medicine and improving agriculture.

The ERC Synergy grant will fund the RESYDE project, which seeks to unravel the complex processes of symmetry breaking in plant development using flowers as a model system.

Symmetry breaking refers to the process by which a symmetrical structure develops into patterns leading to diverse forms and functions. This fundamental phenomenon is crucial in all multicellular organisms; for example, how a single fertilised egg develops into a human body or how a set of identical plant cells develop into distinct floral organs.

In plants, symmetry breaking processes are driven by a variety of mechanisms, including gene regulation, hormones and cell–cell communication. All are essential for understanding how plants build their final structures.

Identifying the systems and pathways that drive the development of specialised organs in flowers may also provide useful insights for animal systems.

The six-year partnership investigating these systems is between Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (Germany), University of Sydney (Australia), Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK) and Umeå University (Sweden).

The collaboration will leverage the expertise from research teams within each university to take on this challenge in a multidisciplinary approach. Working together, their aim is to re-engineer by design a complex developmental system – the flower. Using the Arabidopsis thaliana flower as a model, the RESYDE project will integrate diverse methodologies to create a dynamic, virtual cellular template.

Professor Kerstin Kaufmann, from Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, has already made progress on spatially mapping single cell omics data to the developing flower; Associate Professor Marcus Heisler has developed live imaging and advanced experimental approaches; Professor Henrik Jönsson (Cambridge) has established an in silico platform that integrates cellular dynamics with the modelling of a central regulatory network governing floral meristem patterning; and Professor Stephan Wenkel (Umeå) has identified innovative proteome-based tools for synthetic biology.

“By studying our model plant species, Arabidopsis, we can use it to understand how the amazing diversity of flower structures we find in nature has evolved,” said Associate Professor Heisler. 

Studying how flowers have developed and evolved their form is essential because it reveals the intricate co-evolutionary relationships between flowers and their pollinators, such as insects and animals. The complex tissues of flower organs must be fertilised and then develop into fruit and grain, so the specifics of flower function are critical for future plant breeding and agriculture.

“By addressing the intricate dynamics of symmetry breaking, this research has the potential to unlock new avenues in plant development and evolutionary biology,” said Professor Kaufmann.