Contact
Biography
Anthony's research addresses two main themes: how pattern is specified within vascular tissues and how hormonal signalling pathways integrate to regulate plant development. Current research themes include:
- understanding the mechanism that provides specificity in auxin and cytokinin response in Arabidopsis
- understanding how auxin and cytokinin coordinate root anatomical traits in diverse species
- understanding how root traits have been lost in duckweeds
Expertise Summary
developmental genetics, integrative biology, roots, vascular patterning, auxin, cytokinin, evolution
Teaching Summary
I convene the module "Plant Cell Signalling" and teach on the modules "Advance Molecular Methods for Biotechnology" and "The Green Planet".
Research Summary
The xylem and phloem provide the long distance transport mechanisms for water, sugars and minerals between the root and the shoot as well as providing the plant with rigid stems and roots.… read more
Selected Publications
VON WANGENHEIM D, BANDA J, SCHMITZ A, BOLAND J, BISHOPP A, MAIZEL A, STELZER EHK and BENNETT MJ, 2020. Early developmental plasticity of lateral roots in response to asymmetric water availability Nature Plants. MIYASHIMA, SHUNSUKE, ROSZAK, PAWEL, SEVILEM, IRIS, TOYOKURA, KOICHI, BLOB, BERNHARD, HEO, JUNG-OK, MELLOR, NATHAN, HELP-RINTA-RAHKO, HANNA, OTERO, SOFIA, SMET, WOUTER, BOEKSCHOTEN, MARK, HOOIVELD, GUIDO, HASHIMOTO, KAYO, SMETANA, ONDREJ, SILIGATO, RICCARDO, WALLNER, EVA-SOPHIE, MAHONEN, ARI PEKKA, KONDO, YUKI, MELNYK, CHARLES W., GREB, THOMAS, NAKAJIMA, KEIJI, SOZZANI, ROSANGELA, BISHOPP, ANTHONY, DE RYBEL, BERT and HELARIUTTA, YKA, 2019. Mobile PEAR transcription factors integrate positional cues to prime cambial growth NATURE. 565(7740), 490-+ MELLOR, NATHAN, VAUGHAN-HIRSCH, JOHN, KUMPERS, BRITTA M. C., HELP-RINTA-RAHKO, HANNA, MIYASHIMA, SHUNSUKE, MAHONEN, ARI PEKKA, CAMPILHO, ANA, KINGS, JOHN R. and BISHOPP, ANTHONY, 2019. A core mechanism for specifying root vascular patterning can replicate the anatomical variation seen in diverse plant species DEVELOPMENT. 146(6), OROSA-PUENTE, BEATRIZ, LEFTLEY, NICOLA, VON WANGENHEIM, DANIEL, BANDA, JASON, SRIVASTAVA, ANJIL K., HILL, KRISTINE, TRUSKINA, JEKATERINA, BHOSALE, RAHUL, MORRIS, EMILY, SRIVASTAVA, MOUMITA, KÜMPERS, BRITTA, GOH, TATSUAKI, FUKAKI, HIDEHIRO, VERMEER, JOOP E. M., VERNOUX, TEVA, DINNENY, JOSÉ R., FRENCH, ANDREW P., BISHOPP, ANTHONY, SADANANDOM, ARI and BENNETT, MALCOLM J., 2018. Root branching toward water involves posttranslational modification of transcription factor ARF7 Science. 362(6421), 1407-1410
Current Research
The xylem and phloem provide the long distance transport mechanisms for water, sugars and minerals between the root and the shoot as well as providing the plant with rigid stems and roots. Manipulation of these tissues may offer important benefits in biofuel production, increased stem rigidity to prevent lodging in cereal crops and controlling water uptake. I am also interested in pattern formation, and the root vascular cylinder provides an excellent system for addressing how positional information is gained as bisymmetry is established from a radially symmetric pattern.
The mutually inhibitory interaction between the hormones auxin and cytokinin defines distinct domains of hormonal signalling and these specify vascular pattern. Interaction between the auxin and cytokinin signalling and transport pathways occur at several nodes. High auxin output directly promotes the expression of the cytokinin signalling inhibitor, AHP6. High cytokinin signalling regulates the expression and subcellular localization of the auxin efflux carriers PIN1, PIN3 and PIN7 by an unknown mechanism. In Arabidopsis roots this mutually inhibitory interaction generates an auxin response maxima in a central axis, in which xylem differentiates in a diarch pattern. This is flanked on both sides by two domains of high cytokinin signalling output in which procambial and phloem cells differentiate.
Whilst Arabidopsis roots have a diarch pattern vascular pattern, other eudicot species exhibit alternative patterns, with between one and eight xylem poles arranged in a circular pattern. In contrast, monocotyledon species have a greater number of vascular bundles scattered through the root. It is likely that both auxin and cytokinin regulate vascular patterning in all these species, as treatments with either cytokinin or auxin transport inhibitors lead to similar phenotypes in all plant species tested.
My research takes a systems biology approach combining experimental biology with computational modelling to uncover how the same basic components can be used to generate alternative vascular patterns. The ultimate goal is to identify differences in subtle aspects of the auxin and cytokinin signalling/transport mechanisms that can generate the variety of vascular patterns observed and will specifically focus on rice and barley. This will improve our understanding of how standard "genetic toolkits" can be applied to creating the huge diversity of patterns that we see in the natural world.
More recetly we have been investigating duckweeds. These free floating aquatic plants are either rootless or have highly reduced systems. We are interested in the evolutionary processes that have driven this transition to rootlessness, and in understanding what changes to regulatory networks have facilitated this.