Natalia Pabon-Mora

University of Antioquia | UdeA · Instituto de Biología

Many developmental biologists seldom leave the lab for research, relying instead on establishing colonies of traditional and emerging model systems. However, to fully understand the mechanisms and principles of development and evolution, including the role of ecology and the environment, it is important to study a diverse range of organisms in cont...

2: 257. 1842, nom. cons. Hierbas perennes de porte reducido (de 5 cm de alto o menos), mediano o gigante (de 2 m de alto o más), glabras o pubescentes, monoicas, dioicas o polígamas; rizomas monopodiales postrados, decumbentes o erguidos, generalmente con ápices glandulares y mucilaginosos, carnosos, a veces con estolones simpodiales postrados; lep...

While working on the taxonomic treatment of the family Gunneraceae for the Flora of Argentina, provisional typification for the minute herbaceous species Gunnera lobata and G. magellanica, and the giant herb G. tinctoria, as well as for some of their synonyms, was detected. Here, we designate lectotypes for G. lobata, G. magellanica, G. falklandica...

Nikolaus J. Jacquin (1727-1817), el primer naturalista europeo en herborizar y estudiar plantas del actual territorio colombiano, describió por primera vez numerosas especies del Caribe, entre ellas siete especies de Aristolochia. Actualmente, cinco de estas –A. anguicida, A. caudata, A. maxima, A. oblongata y A. pentandra– son válidas, y las dos r...

Flowers of most Aristolochia species possess six stamens and six carpels; however, the c 40 species of subsection Pentandrae, which grow in S United States, Mexico, N Central America, Cuba, and Jamaica, have flowers with five stamens and five carpels. The sister group of this subsection consists of five hexandrous species from subtropical and tempe...

The Ranunculales are a hyperdiverse lineage in many aspects of their phenotype, including growth habit, floral and leaf morphology, reproductive mode and specialized metabolism. Many Ranunculales species, such as opium poppy and goldenseal have a high medicinal value. In addition, the order includes a large number of commercially important ornament...

Background and Aims Tropaeolaceae (Brassicales) comprise ca. 100 species native to South and Central America. Tropaeolaceae flowers have a nectar spur, formed by a late expansion and evagination of the fused proximal region of the perianth (i.e. the floral tube). This spur is formed in the domain of the tube oriented towards the inflorescence axis,...

The Orchidaceae is a mega-diverse plant family with ca. 29,000 species with a large variety of life forms that can colonize transitory habitats. Despite this diversity, little is known about their flowering integrators in response to specific environmental factors. During the reproductive transition in flowering plants a vegetative apical meristem...

Trichomes are specialized epidermal cells in the aerial plant parts. Trichome development proceeds in three stages, determination of cell fate, specification, and morphogenesis. Most genes responsible for these processes have been identified in the unicellular branched leaf trichomes from the model Arabidopsis thaliana. Less is known about the mole...

Researchers working on evolutionary developmental plant biology are inclined to choose non-model taxa to address how specific features have been acquired during ontogeny and fixed during phylogeny. In this chapter we describe methods to extract RNA, to assemble de-novo transcriptomes, to isolate orthologous genes within gene families, and to evalua...

Aristolochia brachylimba, a new species from Amazonian forests of Peru, is described, illustrated, and discussed with respect to its most similar species, A. stomachoidis Hoehne, from northern, central and eastern Brazil (Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará and Tocantins), and northeastern Argentina (Misiones). The new species di...

La flora del Santuario de Fauna y Flora de Iguaque, única área protegida de la provincia de Ricaurte, Boyacá, Colombia, representa la extraordinaria diversidad vegetal de la Cordillera Oriental colombiana. Nuestro primer objetivo consiste en reportar 88 novedades para esta flora regional, incluidas once especies de Lycophyta y Monilophyta y 77 espe...

The legume tribe Amorpheae comprises eight genera and ca. 240 species exclusive to the New World. We performed parsimony and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses based on sequence data from the nuclear gene CNGC4, the chloroplast trnK/matK genes and the nuclear ribosomal ITS regions. Our goal was to infer the generic-level phylogenetic relation...

Background The LEAFY ( LFY ) transcription factors are present in algae and across land plants. The available expression and functional data of these genes in embryophytes suggest that LFY genes control a plethora of processes including the first zygotic cell division in bryophytes, shoot cell divisions of the gametophyte and sporophyte in ferns, c...

Aragoa, comprising 19 high-altitude North Andean species, is one of three genera in the Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae, Lamiales), along with Littorella and Plantago. Based primarily on plastid data and nuclear ITS, Aragoa is sister to a clade of Littorella + Plantago, but Plantagineae relationships have yet to be assessed using multigene datasets fr...

In angiosperms the reproductive transition results in the transformation of a vegetative apical meristem (SAM) into an inflorescence meristem (IM), capable of forming floral meristems (FM). Two key players in the flowering transition are AGAMOUS-like 24 (AGL24) and SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP). They are eudicot MADS-box paralogs performing opposite...

Premise: The Rubiaceae are ideal for studying the diversity of fruits that develop from flowers with inferior ovary. We aimed to identify morpho-anatomical changes during fruit development that distinguish those derived from the carpel versus the extra-carpellary tissues. In addition, we present the fruit genetic core regulatory network in selecte...

Premise: Floral spurs are key innovations associated with elaborate pollination mechanisms that have evolved independently several times across angiosperms. Spur formation can shift the floral symmetry from radial to bilateral, as it is the case in Tropaeolum, the only member of the Brassicales with floral nectar spurs. The genetic mechanisms unde...

Background Theobroma cacao is a major source of flavonoids such as catechins and their monomers proanthocyanidins (PAs), widely studied for their potential benefits in cardiovascular diseases. Light has been shown to promote plant secondary metabolite production in vitro. In this study, cacao cells cultured in 7.5 L stirred tank photobioreactors (S...

Tribe Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae) comprises ∼270 species in three currently recognized genera (Aragoa, Littorella, Plantago), of which Plantago is most speciose. Plantago plastomes exhibit several atypical features including large inversions, expansions of the inverted repeat, increased repetitiveness, intron losses, and gene-specific increases i...

Abstract. Flowers in the Antidaphne genus are among the smallest in family Santalaceae.We traced the development and morphology of flowers in A. viscoidea and compared them with those in other members of the family. Both staminate and carpellate inflorescences proliferate through collateral and serial buds, and become dimorphic when fully elongated...

Flavonoids, carotenoids, betalains, and chlorophylls are the plant pigments responsible for floral color. Anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids, are largely responsible for the red, purple, pink, and blue colors. R2R3-MYB genes belonging to subgroup 6 (SG6) are the upstream regulatory factors of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. The canonical mem...

Background and Aims The epidermis constitutes the outermost tissue of the plant body. Although it plays major structural, physiological, and ecological roles in embryophytes, the molecular mechanisms controlling epidermal cell fate, differentiation, and trichome development is scarce across angiosperms, and almost unexplored in floral organs. Meth...

The field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) can help address how morphological novelties evolve, a key question in evolutionary biology. In Arabidopsis thaliana, APETALA2 (AP2) plays a role in the development of key plant innovations including seeds, flowers, and fruits. AP2 belongs to the APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE ELEMENT BINDING...

During the reproductive transition in flowering plants, a vegetative apical meristem (SAM) transforms into an inflorescence meristem (IM) that forms bracts and flowers. In grasses such as rice, a genetic regulatory network (GRN) controlling reproductive transitions has been identified. It includes the integration of promoters and repressors from di...

Abstract The oleaginous Jatropha curcas has been proposed as a promising source for biodiesel production in seed or potentially by in vitro production in cell cultures. However, little is known concerning the optimal growth conditions and the transcription of key factors and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of storage lipids in J. curcas cell c...

Background: The mechanisms controlling evolutionary shifts between dry and fleshy fruits in angiosperms are poorly understood. In Solanaceae, Cestrum and Brugmansia represent cases of convergent evolution of fleshy and dry fruits, respectively. Here we study the anatomical and genetic bases of the independent origin of fleshy fruits in Cestrum and...

The family Apodanthaceae comprises two genera (Apodanthes and Pilostyles) and 11 endoparasitic species, all of them lacking root and shoot apical meristems, stems, and leaves. Their vegetative phase is reduced to a mycelium-like endophyte formed by strands of parenchyma cells that are in close contact to the host vasculature. These plants become ap...

Controlled spatiotemporal cell division and expansion are responsible for floral bilateral symmetry. Genetic studies have pointed to class II TCP genes as major regulators of cell division and floral patterning in model core eudicots. Here we study their evolution in perianth‐bearing Piperales and their expression in Aristolochia, a rare occurrence...

Flowering is a rigorously timed and morphologically complex shift in plant development. This change depends on endogenous as well as environmental factors. FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) integrates several cues from different pathways acting as a flowering promoter. Contrary to the role of FT, its paralog TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) delays floral transition....

Background: In Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) flowers, the congenital fusion of the anthers and the commissural, stigmatic lobes forms a gynostemium. Although the molecular bases associated to the apical-basal gynoecium patterning have been described in eudicots, comparative expression studies of the style and stigma regulatory genes have never b...

Durante la transición reproductiva de angiospermas, el meristema apical vegetativo (SAM) se convierte en un meristema de inflorescencia (IM) que produce brácteas y flores. Las vías genéticas responsables de la floración actúan sobre estímulos ambientales como el fotoperíodo y la temperatura, así como sobre estímulos endógenos. En las plantas modelo...

Theobroma cacao is a rich source of flavonoid compounds, which are potent antioxidants. Flavonoids are well-known for their health benefits against cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and improvement of blood pressure. For this reason, cacao mass production has drawn the attention from the functional foods industry. Furthermore, cacao cell suspensions...

Holoparasitism has led to extreme plastome reduction. Plastomes in the legume holoparasite Pilostyles (Apodanthaceae) are the most reduced in both size and gene content known so far in Embryophytes. Here, we found that the Pilostyles boyacensis plastome, the only American species sequenced so far, is reduced to seven functional genes, accD, rpl2, r...

Premise of research. The New World Loranthaceae correspond to a polyphyletic assembly of hemiparasites that exhibit a high floral diversity in terms of size, merism, groundplan, symmetry, and pollination strategies. Homology assessment as well as evolution of floral traits and ontogenetic pathways related to calyx, corolla, and androecium in the fa...

The genetic mechanisms underlying fruit development have been identified in Arabidopsis and have been comparatively studied in tomato as a representative of fleshy fruits. However comparative expression and functional analyses on the bHLH genes downstream the genetic network, ALCATRAZ (ALC) and SPATULA (SPT) which are involved in the formation of t...

The poorly known Aristolochia vitiensis is one of the few species of the genus that inhabits SW Pacific Islands. Here we revisit and complement the description of this Fijian endemic. Our study indicates that the species belongs to the subgenus Aristolochia sect. Diplolobus subsect. Euaristolochia. The trifid apex of the perianth is unique among th...

Premise of the study: Bilateral symmetry in core eudicot flowers is established by the differential expression of CYCLOIDEA (CYC), DICHOTOMA (DICH), and RADIALIS (RAD), which are restricted to the dorsal portion of the flower, and DIVARICATA (DIV), restricted to the ventral and lateral petals. Little is known regarding the evolution of these gene...

Aristolochia species possess a unique sepal-derived petaloid kettle-shaped perianth with distinctive features and epidermal cell types that likely promote pollination. Epidermal cell fate, proliferation, and specialization as well as perianth elaboration have been well studied in core eudicot model species, but little information is available in ea...

Ecologically and economically important fleshy edible fruits have evolved from dry fruit numerous times during angiosperm diversification. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie these shifts are unknown. In the Solanaceae there has been a major shift to fleshy fruits in the subfamily Solanoideae. Evidence suggests that an ortholog of FRUIT...

Floral identity MADS‐box A, B, C, D, E, and AGL6 class genes are predominantly single copy in Magnoliids, and predate the whole genome duplication (WGD) events in monocots and eudicots. By comparison with the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, the expression patterns of B‐, C‐, and D‐class genes in stamen, carpel, and ovules are conserved in Arist...

Bilateral symmetry in orchid flowers is explained by the extreme elaboration of the median petal (labellum), stamen abortion, and congenital stamen-stigma fusion. This contrasts with the typical floral groundplan in other Asparagales, in which trimerous, radially symmetrical flowers exhibit free floral organs. Advances in molecular phylogenetic res...

There is a vast amount of fruit morphological diversity in terms of their texture, the number of carpels, if those carpels are fused or not and how fruits open to disperse the seeds. Arabidopsis thaliana, a model eudicot, has a dry bicarpellate silique, when the fruit matures, the two valves fall apart through the dehiscence zone leaving the seeds...

Primers used for the in situ hybridization analyses in the four RPL homologs.

Developmental landmarks for each stage of flower and fruit development in Papaver somniferum, based on Drea et al. (2007) and our complementary stages.

BofrRPL1, 2, 3 and PsomRPL protein sequences showing the regions where specific primers were designed. BofrRPL reverse primers were designed on the 3′UTR.

MEME analysis showing conserved motifs across basal eudicots RPL protein sequences. Letter size denotes the degree of conservation of each amino acid.

List of the genes included in the phylogenetic analysis, with corresponding species, family and accession number of the sequences.

Catechins, including catechin (C) and epicatechin (E), are the main type of flavonoids in cacao seeds. They play important roles in plant defense and have been associated with human health benefits. Although flavonoid biosynthesis has been extensively studied using in vitro and in vivo models, the regulatory mechanisms controlling their accumulatio...

Background and aims: The genetic basis of fruit development has been extensively studied in Arabidopsis, where major transcription factors controlling valve identity (i.e. FRUITFULL), replum development (i.e. REPLUMLESS) and the differentiation of the dehiscence zones (i.e. SHATTERPROOF, INDEHISCENT and ALCATRAZ) have been identified. This gene re...

Floral diversification in Loranthaceae reaches its highest peak in the Andes. The flowers of the exclusively Andean genus Tristerix exhibit tubular and vividly coloured flowers pollinated by hummingbirds. We studied inflorescence and flower morphoanatomy of the two Colombian species, T. longebracteatus and the highly endangered T. secundus. Both sp...

Background and Aims: The taxonomy of the Panamanian species of Aristolochia is revised 57 years after the first treatment of the genus for the Flora of Panama. The taxonomic, nomenclatural and chorological novelties of the species present in Panama are updated and discussed with respect to the current infrageneric classification. Methods: Specimens...

Se describe e ilustra una especie nueva de Aristolochia perteneciente a la serie Thyrsicae, un grupo monofilético de 19 especies distribuidas desde México hasta Bolivia y centro del Brasil. Hasta ahora, los únicos especímenes conocidos de la nueva especie han sido recolectados en la región central del departamento del Chocó, Colombia. Además, se pr...

Premise of research. The Apodanthaceae, the only parasitic lineage within the order Cucurbitales, comprises one species of Apodanthes and 12 species of Pilostyles, parasitizing Salicaceae, and legume stems, respectively. All species are achlorophyllous and holoparasitic, with a mycelium-like endophyte. Although flowers, fruits, and seeds are the on...

Background: SPATULA (SPT) and ALCATRAZ (ALC) are recent paralogs that belong to the large bHLH transcription factor family. Orthologs of these genes have been found in all core eudicots, whereas pre-duplication genes, named paleoSPATULA/ALCATRAZ, have been found in basal eudicots, monocots, basal angiosperms and gymnosperms. Nevertheless, function...

Psittacanthus is one of the few genera of Loranthaceae that has been described as lacking endosperm and developing polycotyledonous embryos. Based on the study of seeds and seedlings of 12 species of Psittacanthus, we demonstrate that the embryo has two leafy cotyledons surrounded by a massive, compound, starchy, chlorophyllous endosperm, as in mos...

CYCLOIDEA-like genes are involved in the symmetry gene network, limiting cell proliferation in the dorsal regions of bilateral flowers in core eudicots. CYC-like and closely related TCP genes (acronym for TEOSINTE BRANCHED1, CYCLOIDEA, and PROLIFERATION CELL FACTOR) have been poorly studied in Asparagales, the largest order of monocots that include...

Expression patterns of TCP-like homologs in Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae), Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum tuberosum (Solanaceae). (A) Arabidopsis thaliana AthTCP24 (CIN-like). (B) Arabidopsis thaliana AthTCP20 (PCF-like). (C) Solanum lycopersicum SlyTCP24 (CIN-like). (D) Solanum lycopersicum SlyTCP11 (PCF-like). (E) Solanum tuberosum StuTCP...

Primers used for TCP-like gene expression analyses.

List of sequences used in this study.

Conserved motifs in and Orchidaceae and non-Orchidaceae Asparagales TCP-like proteins. Model core eudicots and monocots used as reference include Arabidopsis thaliana, Antirrhinum majus, and Oryza sativa. Motifs 1, 2, and 3 correspond to the conserved TCP domain. Motif 11 indicates the characteristic R domain in Class II TCP-like genes. Motif 14 co...

ML analysis of TCP-like genes with extended Solanaceae sampling. ML phylogenetic analysis of TCP-like genes with reduced sampling including only model organisms like Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum, two Orchidaceae species, Cattleya trianae, Orchis italica, one non-Orchidaceae Asparagales, Hypoxis decumbe...

Premise of the study: Loranthaceae, Santalaceae, and Viscaceae are the most diversified hemiparasitic families of Santalales in the Andes. Their partial inflorescences (PIs) vary from solitary flowers, or dichasia in most Santalales, to congested floral groups along articles in most Viscaceae. The atypical articled inflorescences in Phoradendreae...

Plant evolution has been shaped by key morphological and developmental novelties that have improved plant’s fitness as terrestrial organisms. Here we describe and discuss some of these traits in an evo-devo context, emphasizing those that have allowed seed plants, and especially flowering plants, to diversify and become dominant on Earth. Flowers a...