OEB Seminar Series: Fay-Wei Li

Fay-Wei Li
Assistant Professor
Boyce Thompson Institute

Sex, symbiosis, and CO2-concentrating mechanism: the secret life of hornworts

Abstract: Hornworts are one of the three lineages of bryophytes and are distinct in many aspects. They diverged from other extant land plants over 480 million years ago; as such, hornworts are of paramount importance to retrace plant evolutionary history. Furthermore, hornworts have evolved a suite of unique traits, including sex chromosomes, endophytic symbiosis with N2-fixing cyanobacteria, and pyrenoids composed of phase separated Rubisco for CO2-concentrating mechanism. To facilitate hornwort research, we have generated a “pan-phylum” genomic dataset and greatly improved the efficiency of genetic transformation. Here I will present how we have been applying these new resources and tools to study hornwort sex chromosomes, cyanobacteria symbiosis, and Rubisco phase separation.

Host: OEB Postdoctoral Fellows