Sandra K Floyd

Publications (11)166.6 Total impact

• Source

  Available from: Jing-Ke Weng

  Article: The Selaginella genome identifies genetic changes associated with the evolution of vascular plants.

  Jo Ann Banks, Tomoaki Nishiyama, Mitsuyasu Hasebe, John L Bowman, Michael Gribskov, Claude dePamphilis, Victor A Albert, Naoki Aono, Tsuyoshi Aoyama, Barbara A Ambrose, [......], Uffe Hellsten, Dominique Loqué, Robert Otillar, Asaf Salamov, Jeremy Schmutz, Harris Shapiro, Erika Lindquist, Susan Lucas, Daniel Rokhsar, Igor V Grigoriev
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  ABSTRACT: Vascular plants appeared ~410 million years ago, then diverged into several lineages of which only two survive: the euphyllophytes (ferns and seed plants) and the lycophytes. We report here the genome sequence of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii (Selaginella), the first nonseed vascular plant genome reported. By comparing gene content in evolutionarily diverse taxa, we found that the transition from a gametophyte- to a sporophyte-dominated life cycle required far fewer new genes than the transition from a nonseed vascular to a flowering plant, whereas secondary metabolic genes expanded extensively and in parallel in the lycophyte and angiosperm lineages. Selaginella differs in posttranscriptional gene regulation, including small RNA regulation of repetitive elements, an absence of the trans-acting small interfering RNA pathway, and extensive RNA editing of organellar genes.
  Science 05/2011; 332(6032):960-3. · 31.20 Impact Factor
• Article: Differentiating Arabidopsis shoots from leaves by combined YABBY activities.

  Rajani Sarojam, Pia G Sappl, Alexander Goldshmidt, Idan Efroni, Sandra K Floyd, Yuval Eshed, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: In seed plants, leaves are born on radial shoots, but unlike shoots, they are determinate dorsiventral organs made of flat lamina. YABBY genes are found only in seed plants and in all cases studied are expressed primarily in lateral organs and in a polar manner. Despite their simple expression, Arabidopsis thaliana plants lacking all YABBY gene activities have a wide range of morphological defects in all lateral organs as well as the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Here, we show that leaves lacking all YABBY activities are initiated as dorsiventral appendages but fail to properly activate lamina programs. In particular, the activation of most CINCINNATA-class TCP genes does not commence, SAM-specific programs are reactivated, and a marginal leaf domain is not established. Altered distribution of auxin signaling and the auxin efflux carrier PIN1, highly reduced venation, initiation of multiple cotyledons, and gradual loss of the SAM accompany these defects. We suggest that YABBY functions were recruited to mold modified shoot systems into flat plant appendages by translating organ polarity into lamina-specific programs that include marginal auxin flow and activation of a maturation schedule directing determinate growth.
  The Plant Cell 07/2010; 22(7):2113-30. · 8.99 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: PubMed Central

  Article: Effects of APETALA2 on embryo, endosperm, and seed coat development determine seed size in Arabidopsis.

  Masa-aki Ohto, Sandra K Floyd, Robert L Fischer, Robert B Goldberg, John J Harada
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  ABSTRACT: Arabidopsis APETALA2 (AP2) controls seed mass maternally, with ap2 mutants producing larger seeds than wild type. Here, we show that AP2 influences development of the three major seed compartments: embryo, endosperm, and seed coat. AP2 appears to have a significant effect on endosperm development. ap2 mutant seeds undergo an extended period of rapid endosperm growth early in development relative to wild type. This early expanded growth period in ap2 seeds is associated with delayed endosperm cellularization and overgrowth of the endosperm central vacuole. The subsequent period of moderate endosperm growth is also extended in ap2 seeds largely due to persistent cell divisions at the endosperm periphery. The effect of AP2 on endosperm development is mediated by different mechanisms than parent-of-origin effects on seed size observed in interploidy crosses. Seed coat development is affected; integument cells of ap2 mutants are more elongated than wild type. We conclude that endosperm overgrowth and/or integument cell elongation create a larger postfertilization embryo sac into which the ap2 embryo can grow. Morphological development of the embryo is initially delayed in ap2 compared with wild-type seeds, but ap2 embryos become larger than wild type after the bent-cotyledon stage of development. ap2 embryos are able to fill the enlarged postfertilization embryo sac, because they undergo extended periods of cell proliferation and seed filling. We discuss potential mechanisms by which maternally acting AP2 influences development of the zygotic embryo and endosperm to repress seed size.
  Sexual Plant Reproduction 12/2009; 22(4):277-89. · 1.87 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: cam.ac.uk

  Article: Patterning and polarity in seed plant shoots.

  John L Bowman, Sandra K Floyd
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  ABSTRACT: Leaves and stems are ultimately derived from the shoot apical meristem (SAM); leaves arise from the peripheral zone of the SAM and stem tissue is derived from both the peripheral and central zones of the SAM. Both the peripheral and central regions of the SAM are formed during embryogenesis when the basic body plan of the plant is established. Interplay between points of maximal concentration of auxin and specific patterns of transcription of both auxin-responsive transcription factors and other patterning genes subdivide the embryo along both the apical-basal and central-peripheral axes. Differential gene expression along these axes leads to the differentiation of tissues, lateral organs, meristems, and boundary regions, each with varying responsiveness to auxin. Subsequent shoot growth and development is a reiteration of basic patterning processes established during embryogenesis.
  Annual review of plant biology 02/2008; 59:67-88. · 25.96 Impact Factor
• Chapter: MicroRNAs: Micro‐managing the Plant Genome

  Sandra K. Floyd, John L. Bowman
  11/2007: pages 244 - 278; , ISBN: 9780470988626
• Source

  Available from: Keiko Sakakibara

  Article: Green genes-comparative genomics of the green branch of life.

  John L Bowman, Sandra K Floyd, Keiko Sakakibara
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  ABSTRACT: As more plant genome sequences become available, researchers are increasingly using comparative genomics to address some of the major questions in plant biology. Such questions include the evolution of photosynthesis and multicellularity, the developmental genetic changes responsible for alterations in body plan, and the origin of important plant innovations such as roots, leaves, and vascular tissue.
  Cell 05/2007; 129(2):229-34. · 32.40 Impact Factor
• Article: Distinct developmental mechanisms reflect the independent origins of leaves in vascular plants.

  Sandra K Floyd, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: Vascular plants diverged more than 400 million years ago into two lineages, the lycophytes and the euphyllophytes . Leaf-like organs evolved independently in these two groups . Microphylls in lycophytes are hypothesized to have originated as lateral outgrowths of tissue that later became vascularized (the enation theory) or through the sterilization of sporangia (the sterilization hypothesis) . Megaphylls in euphyllophytes are thought to represent modified lateral branches . The fossil record also indicates that the seed plant megaphyll evolved uniquely in the ancestor of seed plants, independent of megaphylls in ferns, because seed plants evolved from leafless progymnosperm ancestors . Surprisingly, a recent study of KNOX and ARP gene expression in a lycophyte was reported to indicate recruitment of a similar mechanism for determinacy in both types of leaves . We examined the expression of Class III HD-Zip genes in the lycophyte Selaginella kraussiana and in two gymnosperms, Ginkgo and Pseudotsuga. Our data indicate that mechanisms promoting leaf initiation, vascularization, and polarity are quite different in lycophytes and seed plants, consistent with the hypotheses that megaphylls originated as lateral branches whereas microphylls originated as tissue outgrowths.
  Current Biology 11/2006; 16(19):1911-7. · 9.65 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: genetics.org

  Article: Evolution of class III homeodomain-leucine zipper genes in streptophytes.

  Sandra K Floyd, Christopher S Zalewski, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: Land plants underwent tremendous evolutionary change following the divergence of the ancestral lineage from algal relatives. Several important developmental innovations appeared as the embryophyte clade diversified, leading to the appearance of new organs and tissue types. To understand how these changes came about, we need to identify the fundamental genetic developmental programs that are responsible for growth, patterning, and differentiation and describe how these programs were modified and elaborated through time to produce novel morphologies. Class III homeodomain-leucine zipper (class III HD-Zip) genes, identified in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, provide good candidates for basic land plant patterning genes. We show that these genes may have evolved in a common ancestor of land plants and their algal sister group and that the gene family has diversified as land plant lineages have diversified. Phylogenetic analysis, expression data from nonflowering lineages, and evidence from Arabidopsis and other flowering plants indicate that class III HD-Zip genes acquired new functions in sporophyte apical growth, vascular patterning and differentiation, and leaf development. Modification of expression patterns that accompanied diversification of class III HD-Zip genes likely played an important role in the evolution of land plant form.
  Genetics 06/2006; 173(1):373-88. · 4.01 Impact Factor
• Article: Asymmetric leaf development and blade expansion in Arabidopsis are mediated by KANADI and YABBY activities.

  Yuval Eshed, Anat Izhaki, Stuart F Baum, Sandra K Floyd, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: Asymmetric development of plant lateral organs is initiated by a partitioning of organ primordia into distinct domains along their adaxial/abaxial axis. Two primary determinants of abaxial cell fate are members of the KANADI and YABBY gene families. Progressive loss of KANADI activity in loss-of-function mutants results in progressive transformation of abaxial cell types into adaxial ones and a correlated loss of lamina formation. Novel, localized planes of blade expansion occur in some kanadi loss-of-function genotypes and these ectopic lamina outgrowths are YABBY dependent. We propose that the initial asymmetric leaf development is regulated primarily by mutual antagonism between KANADI and PHB-like genes, which is translated into polar YABBY expression. Subsequently, polar YABBY expression contributes both to abaxial cell fate and to abaxial/adaxial juxtaposition-mediated lamina expansion.
  Development 07/2004; 131(12):2997-3006. · 6.60 Impact Factor
• Article: Gene regulation: ancient microRNA target sequences in plants.

  Sandra K Floyd, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs are an abundant class of small RNAs that are thought to regulate the expression of protein-coding genes in plants and animals. Here we show that the target sequence of two microRNAs, known to regulate genes in the class-III homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) gene family of the flowering plant Arabidopsis, is conserved in homologous sequences from all lineages of land plants, including bryophytes, lycopods, ferns and seed plants. We also find that the messenger RNAs from these genes are cleaved within the same microRNA-binding site in representatives of each land-plant group, as they are in Arabidopsis. Our results indicate not only that microRNAs mediate gene regulation in non-flowering as well as flowering plants, but also that the regulation of this class of plant genes dates back more than 400 million years.
  Nature 05/2004; 428(6982):485-6. · 36.28 Impact Factor
• Article: Radial patterning of Arabidopsis shoots by class III HD-ZIP and KANADI genes.

  John F Emery, Sandra K Floyd, John Alvarez, Yuval Eshed, Nathaniel P Hawker, Anat Izhaki, Stuart F Baum, John L Bowman
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  ABSTRACT: Shoots of all land plants have a radial pattern that can be considered to have an adaxial (central)-abaxial (peripheral) polarity. In Arabidopsis, gain-of-function alleles of PHAVOLUTA and PHABULOSA, members of the class III HD-ZIP gene family, result in adaxialization of lateral organs. Conversely, loss-of-function alleles of the KANADI genes cause an adaxialization of lateral organs. Thus, the class III HD-ZIP and KANADI genes comprise a genetic system that patterns abaxial-adaxial polarity in lateral organs produced from the apical meristem. We show that gain-of-function alleles of REVOLUTA, another member of the class III HD-ZIP gene family, are characterized by adaxialized lateral organs and alterations in the radial patterning of vascular bundles in the stem. The gain-of-function phenotype can be obtained by changing only the REVOLUTA mRNA sequence and without changing the protein sequence; this finding indicates that this phenotype is likely mediated through an interference with microRNA binding. Loss of KANADI activity results in similar alterations in vascular patterning as compared to REVOLUTA gain-of-function alleles. Simultaneous loss-of-function of PHABULOSA, PHAVOLUTA, and REVOLUTA abaxializes cotyledons, abolishes the formation of the primary apical meristem, and in severe cases, eliminates bilateral symmetry; these phenotypes implicate these three genes in radial patterning of both embryonic and postembryonic growth. Based on complementary vascular and leaf phenotypes of class III HD-ZIP and KANADI mutants, we propose that a common genetic program dependent upon miRNAs governs adaxial-abaxial patterning of leaves and radial patterning of stems in the angiosperm shoot. This finding implies that a common patterning mechanism is shared between apical and vascular meristems.
  Current Biology 11/2003; 13(20):1768-74. · 9.65 Impact Factor