At the cellular level, the development and growth of all plant organs is based on a common general scheme. After the different cell types are established by formative divisions of stem cells, a stage of cell proliferation occurs in which cells perform the Mitotic Cell Cycle (MCC) to amplify in number. These new cells, initially small and with limited differentiation, begin a period of cell expansion. In this second stage, plant cells usually perform a variety of the cell cycle called Endoreplication (ER), which consists of DNA replication without subsequent mitosis and cytokinesis, generating cells with higher somatic polyploidy, i.e, chromatin content.

As a working hypothesis, we propose that there are multiple mechanisms at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level in plants that control the transition from the MCC to ER. This occurs both during normal development as well as part of the developmental plasticity mechanisms that plants deploy in response to the environment. Of these mechanisms, some have only been partially characterized and some have yet to be identified. We also propose that the functions of somatic polyploidy generated by ER go beyond promoting cell expansion and that there are still functions that are not fully established and characterized yet.

In this line of research, we aim to study the mechanisms that control ER in plants. In addition, we propose to analyze how the somatic polyploidy generated by this process contributes to the development of different plant organs and the interaction of plants with the environment. We propose to study regulatory networks of transcription factors (TF) that control the transition from MCC to RD and to determine the function of somatic polyploidy in plants by analyzing in detail at the cellular, biochemical, and physiological level plants with modifications in these regulatory pathways.

X: @ramrodri