A quantitative study of periodic patterning in growing multicellular tissues: understanding trichome development

2026-07-22

The development of living organisms involves tightly coordinated regulatory mechanisms that reliably instruct each cell type, tissue, and organ to perform specific functions. This is achieved through an elaborate interplay between pattern formation, cellular growth, and division. Patterning processes occurring as cells grow and divide are present in many biological systems. These include the generation of digits in the vertebrate limb and the specification of trichomes in the leaf epidermis of Arabidopsis, among many other examples. Still, the effect of cellular growth and division on pattern formation remains poorly understood. Because of the difference in time scales, pattern formation, and growth have been typically studied separately; however, in many developmental processes, these two time scales are comparable, and the effect of growth on patterning must be considered explicitly. In this project, I will combine quantitative image analysis, mathematical modelling, and computer simulations to understand the interplay between cellular patterning and growth, by focusing on trichome development. Trichomes constitute an optimal model to test fundamental principles of pattern formation in growing tissues, because there is a good understanding of the underlying gene regulatory networks, and the pattern formation process can be tracked over time. This project will be developed in collaboration with leading experts in the field: the Hülskamp lab, providing the experimental data, and the Fleck lab, providing the theoretical expertise in the regulatory networks underlying trichome patterning. The findings resulting from this project will elucidate general principles of pattern formation in plants and other living organisms during tissue growth.

Germany

2025-10-01