Contribution of water fluxes to shoot apical meristem development – HydroField

Plants continuously develop throughout their lifetime through the apical meristems located at the tip of growing axes. The genetic regulation of the shoot apical meristems (SAMs), which produces all plant aerial parts, has been extensively studied in model plants, and various key molecular actors have been identified and mapped in space and time. Based on these results, recent works have investigated how these molecular actors induce physical deformation of tissues by modifying cell wall mechanical properties, and in turn result in leaf or flower primordia outgrowth. In most of these studies, cell turgor pressure, that drives wall deformation, is assumed to be constant and homogeneous. Here, with a pluri-disciplinary team, we want to map mechanical and hydraulic properties in tissues and develop computational models to better understand how water pressure builds up in meristem parts. We will challenge this view by using mutants and treatments modifying cell conductivity and mechanics.