The bulk of Bernard’s thesis now published: “Local auxin competition explains fragmented differentiation patterns”, a study emerging from a collaboration with mathematician and theoretical biologist Kirsten ten Tusscher from Utrecht University. The combination of experimental data and modelling can essentially explain all the paradoxical observations we made in our protophloem analyses over the years.
A concise summary: “Sieve element differentiation in Arabidopsis roots requires two antagonistic regulators of auxin efflux, BRX and PAX. Here the authors show that together they coordinate sieve element formation by preventing cell fate bistability emerging from AUX1-mediated competition for auxin between neighboring cells.”
