Affiliation: University of Oxford, Department of Biology

Unlike the diverse reticulated vein networks that develop in the variably shaped leaves of eudicotyledonous plant species, monocotyledonous grass leaves are unified by a linear shape and a pattern of parallel longitudinal veins. However, two variants of the venation pattern exist the derived ‘C4’ pattern, in which pairs of veins can be separated across the mediolateral leaf axis by just four intervening cells, and the ancestral ‘C3’ pattern with more widely spaced veins. After a PhD and a 1-year of assistant lectureship working on the hormonal regulation of plant development at the University of Paris-Saclay (France), Dr. Tan joined the Jane Langdale lab to understand what mechanisms underpin this constrained pattern with a focus on the relationship between cell divisions and vein formation in developing grass leaves.