Plant architecture without multicellularity: an intracellular transcriptomic atlas of a giant, single-celled alga

1. Plant architecture without multicellularity: An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of a giant, single-celled alga Dan Chitwood Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 74th Society for Developmental Biology July 11, 2015

2. Independent origins of multicellularity

3. Independent origins of multicellularity Opisthokonts Streptophytes Viridiplantae Plantae Chlorophytes Rhodophytes Algae (polyphyletic) M Abedin & N King (2010) Trends in Cell Biology

6. Independent origins of multicellularity Opisthokonts Streptophytes Viridiplantae Plantae Chlorophytes Rhodophytes Algae (polyphyletic)

9. Macroscopic morphological complexity: plant architecture without multicellularity V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci

10. Macroscopic morphological complexity: plant architecture without multicellularity Ernst Haeckel, Wikipedia, Wikimedia commons

11. Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience

12. Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience Cilia and Jackson (2004) Curr Opin in Cell Biol

13. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm 2) Phragmoplasts

14. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm 2) Phragmoplasts 3) Cell lineage patterns

15. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm 2) Phragmoplasts 3) Cell lineage patterns

16. Brukhin, Curtis, Grossniklaus (2005) Current Science Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm 2) Phragmoplasts 3) Cell lineage patterns 4) Coenocytic female gametophyte

17. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991) BioScience Cell vs. Organismal Theory: Plant development Animal development 1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm 2) Phragmoplasts 3) Cell lineage patterns 4) Coenocytic female gametophyte Conclusion: there is as much evidence to view morphologically complex plants as coenocytes as there is to consider them multicellular (at least in the same sense as animals)

18. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

19. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Why Caulerpa taxifolia? 1) Debatably worlds largest single- celled organism Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

20. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Why Caulerpa taxifolia? 1) Debatably worlds largest single- celled organism 2) Can regenerate from any fragment Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

21. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Why Caulerpa taxifolia? 1) Debatably worlds largest single- celled organism 2) Can regenerate from any fragment 3) Killer algaeinvasive Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

22. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Why Caulerpa taxifolia? 1) Debatably worlds largest single- celled organism 2) Can regenerate from any fragment 3) Killer algaeinvasive 4) Endosymbiotic bacteria Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

23. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Why Caulerpa taxifolia? 1) Debatably worlds largest single- celled organism 2) Can regenerate from any fragment 3) Killer algaeinvasive 4) Endosymbiotic bacteria 5) Convergent morphology with land plants Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

24. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

25. A wave of apical-basal gene expression Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

34. Intracellular patterns of gene expression coincide with pseudo- organs Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

35. Intracellular patterns of gene expression coincide with pseudo- organs Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

36. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs?

37. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs? Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

38. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs? Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics ?? D Reinhardt

39. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs? Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics ?

40. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs? Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics

41. Molecular homology between land plant organs and algal pseudo-organs? Ranjan et al. (2015) PLOS Genetics D Reinhardt

42. More questions

43. More questions V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci Future directions 1) Small RNA movement 2) mRNA movement

44. More questions V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci Future directions 1) Small RNA movement 2) mRNA movement

45. More questions V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci Future directions 1) Small RNA movement 2) mRNA movement 3) Are nuclei functionally equivalent? 4) Soma-germline divide?

46. More questions V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci Future directions 1) Small RNA movement 2) mRNA movement 3) Are nuclei functionally equivalent? 4) Soma-germline divide? 5) Genome sequencing

47. More questions V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015) Front Plant Sci Future directions 1) Small RNA movement 2) mRNA movement 3) Are nuclei functionally equivalent? 4) Soma-germline divide? 5) Genome sequencing 6) Intracellular microbiome

48. Thanks! Chitwood lab Viktoriya Coneva Margaret Frank Sinha Lab Aashish Ranjan Brad Townsley Yasunori Ichihashi Funding Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation Life Sciences Research Fellowship