Genetics Department Seminar Series: "Tracing the Evolution of Organ Fusion in Plants: A Case Study in Honeysuckles"

Much of the diversity of form that we observe in the more than 300,000 species of land plants relates to the fusion of parts. Here, I will describe our work on honeysuckles, a natural laboratory for studies of organ fusion, to identify evolutionary transitions between unfused and fused organs and to study the evolution of CUP-SHAPED COTYLEDON (CUC) that has been shown to effect boundary formation in cotyledons, leaves, and floral organs.