2. A giant single-celled alga
& the implications for plant
cell theory
Latent genetic &
developmental shapes in
grapevine leaves
The shape of climate change:
Inter-annual variability in
grapevine leaf shape
4. Independent origins of multicellularity
Opisthokonts
Streptophytes
Viridiplantae
Plantae
Chlorophytes
Rhodophytes
Algae
(polyphyletic)
M Abedin & N King (2010)
Trends in Cell Biology
5. Independent origins of multicellularity
Opisthokonts
Streptophytes
Viridiplantae
Plantae
Chlorophytes
Rhodophytes
Algae
(polyphyletic)
M Abedin & N King (2010)
Trends in Cell Biology
6. Independent origins of multicellularity
Opisthokonts
Streptophytes
Viridiplantae
Plantae
Chlorophytes
Rhodophytes
Algae
(polyphyletic)
M Abedin & N King (2010)
Trends in Cell Biology
10. Macroscopic morphological complexity:
plant architecture without multicellularity
V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015)
Front Plant Sci
Adapted from Cocquyt et al.
(2010) Mol Biol Evol
12. Macroscopic morphological complexity:
plant architecture without multicellularity
V Coneva & D Chitwood (2015)
Front Plant Sci
Adapted from Cocquyt et al.
(2010) Mol Biol Evol
14. Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
15. Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
Cilia and Jackson (2004)
Curr Opin in Cell Biol
16. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
2) Phragmoplasts
17. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
2) Phragmoplasts
3) Cell lineage patterns
18. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
2) Phragmoplasts
3) Cell lineage patterns
19. Brukhin, Curtis, Grossniklaus (2005)
Current Science
Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
2) Phragmoplasts
3) Cell lineage patterns
4) Coenocytic female gametophyte
20. Kaplan and Hagemann (1991)
BioScience
Cell vs. Organismal Theory:
Plant development ≠ Animal development
1) Plasmodesmata, symplasm
2) Phragmoplasts
3) Cell lineage patterns
4) Coenocytic female gametophyte
Conclusion: there is as much evidence to view
morphologically complex plants as coenocytes as
there is to consider them multicellular (at least in the
same sense as animals)
22. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the
giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia
Why Caulerpa taxifolia?
1) Debatably world’s largest single-
celled organism
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
23. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the
giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia
Why Caulerpa taxifolia?
1) Debatably world’s largest single-
celled organism
2) Can regenerate from any fragment
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
24. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the
giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia
Why Caulerpa taxifolia?
1) Debatably world’s largest single-
celled organism
2) Can regenerate from any fragment
3) “Killer algae”—invasive
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
25. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the
giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia
Why Caulerpa taxifolia?
1) Debatably world’s largest single-
celled organism
2) Can regenerate from any fragment
3) “Killer algae”—invasive
4) Endosymbiotic bacteria
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
26. An intracellular transcriptomic atlas of the
giant coenocyte Caulerpa taxifolia
Why Caulerpa taxifolia?
1) Debatably world’s largest single-
celled organism
2) Can regenerate from any fragment
3) “Killer algae”—invasive
4) Endosymbiotic bacteria
5) Convergent morphology with land
plants
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
39. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Leliaert et al.
(2012)
Crit. Rev.
Plant Sci.
40. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
41. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
??
D Reinhardt
42. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
?
43. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
44. Molecular homology between land plant
organs and algal pseudo-organs?
Ranjan et al. (2015)
PLOS Genetics
D Reinhardt
45. A giant single-celled alga
& the implications for plant
cell theory
Latent genetic &
developmental shapes in
grapevine leaves
The shape of climate change:
Inter-annual variability in
grapevine leaf shape
67. Leaf number can be predicted
independently from species identity
68. A giant single-celled alga
& the implications for plant
cell theory
Latent genetic &
developmental shapes in
grapevine leaves
The shape of climate change:
Inter-annual variability in
grapevine leaf shape
85. Extant and geologic history:
Leaf shape & size correlate with climate
Paleomap, scotese.com
86. Thanks!
Caulerpa
Aashish Ranjan
Brad Townsley
Yasu Ichihashi
Neelima Sinha
Grapes
Laura Klein
Allison Miller
Jason Londo
Susan Rundell
Quaneisha Woodford
Darren Li
Tommy Yu
Jose Lopez
Julie Kang
Tomatoes/grafting
Margaret Frank
Viktoriya Coneva