Decoding the biomechanical and signaling rules that shape plant epidermal cells.
This project explores how plants coordinate complex shapes in their outer protective layer, the epidermis. Using Arabidopsis pavement cells as a model, we discovered that auxin acts as a hierarchical signal: a global auxin flow establishes a “blueprint” across the tissue, while local auxin signaling drives the interdigitation (puzzle-piece shape) of individual cells.
We recently identified that this local shaping is initiated by auxin signaling rather than mechanical stress, fundamentally shifting our understanding of plant morphogenesis. Extending this to the root, my work on WALLFLOWER (WFL) reveals how polarized receptor kinases modify cell wall properties to control anisotropic growth. Together, these studies explain how plants generate robust yet plastic epidermal patterns during organ growth.