WG/GLIMPRINT Virtual Seminars, Scacchi, Small RNAs in Leaf Polarity, October 30, 2025

Описание: Mobile Small RNAs and Turing Patterns: Coordinating Leaf Polarity and Shape Diversity
Emanuele Scacchi
Winner of the 2025 OpenVT Reproducible Modeling Competition
University of Tübingen, Germany

The formation of a flat and thin leaf presents a developmentally challenging problem, requiring intricate regulation of adaxial–abaxial (top–bottom) polarity. The patterning principles controlling the spatial arrangement of these domains during organ growth have remained unclear. Here we show that this regulation in Arabidopsis thaliana is achieved by an organ-autonomous Turing reaction‐diffusion system centred on mobile small RNAs. The data illustrate how Turing dynamics transiently instructed by prepatterned information is sufficient to self‐sustain properly oriented polarity in a dynamic, growing organ, presenting intriguing parallels to left–right patterning in the vertebrate embryo. Computational modelling demonstrates that this self-organizing system continuously adapts to coordinate the robust planar polarity of a flat leaf while affording flexibility to generate the tissue patterns of evolutionarily diverse organ shapes. Our findings identify a small-RNA-based Turing network as a dynamic regulator of organ polarity that accounts for leaf shape diversity at the level of the individual organ, plant or species.

For more information see: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4147...

Runnable Version of the Model: https://morpheus.gitlab.io/author/e.-...

Contents
00:00 - Introduction
02:47 - Mobile Small RNAs and Turing Patterns: Coordinating Leaf Polarity and Shape Diversity
37:27 - Questions and Discussion

For a copy of the slides for this video visit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10H6p...

Moderator: James A. Glazier

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