Fruit Evolution and Development

Barbara A. Ambrose and collaborators

Fruits come in various shapes and sizes and their particular forms aid seed dispersal by animals (zoochory), wind (anemochory), or water (hydrochory). Along with our collaborators (University of Milan, Italy, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, North Carolina State University, and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain), we are investigating the physiology and genetics of fruit formation in the model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. We are collaborating with Dr. Natalia Pabón-Mora (Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia) to investigate if changes in a fruit development network can explain the diversity of fruits. These international collaborations are important for sharing expertise and cutting-edge techniques among principal investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, and integral for future research in agriculturally important crops. This work is funded in part by the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Program (European Commission) and Wallace Genetic Foundation.

More information: Pabón-Mora N, Wong GK-S and Ambrose BA (2014) Evolution of fruit development genes in flowering plants. Front. Plant Sci. 5:300. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00300

Variation in fruit structure.