Evolution and Development of Land Plants—A Focus on Ferns

Land plants evolved over 450 million years ago from freshwater green algae and have come to dominate the earth’s surface; fundamentally changing our planet. Concomitant with a transition to land, plants evolved a complex multicellular diploid body composed of novel cells and organs that allowed plants to grow larger, persist in varied climates, and occupy diverse ecological niches. Our research focuses on lycophytes and ferns to investigate the origin and diversity of complex multicellularity. This presentation will provide a broad overview of the cellular, genetic, and genomic approaches we use to address fundamental questions in plant evolution and development.