Seminario INGEBI

Lunes 23 de septiembre 13:20 hs.

Dr. José M. Estévez

Investigador Principal CONICET
Jefe de Laboratorio Fundación Instituto Leloir (FIL)- IIBBA, Argentina
Profesor UNAB-CBV, Chile

“How extracellular and intracellular signals control growth in single cells in Arabidopsis roots”

One of the most intriguing questions in modern biology is how cells regulate their size. The rate at which cells grow is determined both by cell-intrinsic factors and external environment signals. Root hairs are single plant cells that can expand several hundred-fold their original size and have emerged as an excellent model system for studying cell size regulation. A well-defined developmental program and multiple environmental signals coupled to several hormones are integrated to define the final size of root hairs. Root hair size has vital physiological implications for the plant, determining the surface area/volume ratio of the whole roots exposed to the nutrient pools, thereby likely impacting nutrient uptake rates. Although the final hair size is of fundamental importance, the molecular mechanisms that control it remained largely unknown until recent years. In this seminar, I will show how extracellular signals like specific nutrients and small peptides as well as endogenous hormones like auxin are able to control growth at single plant cell level.