Gesneriaceae

This family exhibits great diversity in architecture. Some plants show ordinary shoots while others lack a shoot and among these the one-leaf plants possess one enlarged cotyledon as sole photosynthetic organ. Floral forms also vary greatly even within genera perhaps in response to pollinator adaptations. We study the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying this variation in an evolutionary framework.

Projects

• Generating a genetic map of Streptocarpus (M. Möller, K. Nishii & Y.Y. Chen, C. Hackett [BIoSS])
• Whole genome sequencing of Streptocarpus rexii (M. Möller, K. Nishii & Y.Y. Chen)
• Unifoliate : rosulate genetics in the morphologically flexible genus Streptocarpus (M. Möller, K. Nishii, Y.Y. Chen, C. Kidner [University of Edinburgh])
• Morphology and genetics of centric : excentric rosulate Streptocarpus (M. Möller, K. Nishii)
• Morphogenesis in Streptocarpus section Protostreptocarpus (M. Möller, K. Nishii)
• Phylogeny and floral evolution in Didymocarpus (M. Möller, N.S. Prasanna & V. Gowda [IISER], Bhaskar Adhikari, Pranee Nangngam [Naresuan University], D. Middleton [Singapore Botanic Garden])
• Phylogeny and character evolution in Oreocharis (M. Möller, W.H. Chen, Y.M. Shui [Kunming Institute of Botany])

Key Publications

Chen YY, K Nishii, S Barber, C Hackett, C Kidner, K Gharbi, AJ Nagano, A Iwamoto, M Möller (2018). Building a genetic map: Comparison between de novo and reference-based approaches using RAD sequencing data in Streptocarpus (Gesneriaceae). South African Journal of Botany 117 (2018) 158–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2018.05.009

Nishii K, BH Huang, CN Wang, M Möller (2017). From shoot to leaf: step-wise shifts in meristem and KNOX1 activity correlate with the evolution of a unifoliate body plan in Gesneriaceae. Development Genes and Evolution 227: 41.

Contact: Michael Möller; Kanae Nishii