The Lemnaceae family exhibits remarkable ecological plasticity, allowing these aquatic plants to thrive in diverse freshwater habitats. A key mechanism of this adaptation is the modulation of membrane lipids, which is crucial for maintaining biological functions under fluctuating environmental conditions. While their potential as a sustainable protein source is well-known, the ecological...
Future climate change may reshape ecological communities not only by increasing mean temperature, but also by altering the consequences of increasingly frequent heatwaves. Predicting these effects requires understanding how background warming interacts with short heatwaves in natural communities, where responses can arise through direct thermal stress and species interactions. We tested this...
Whole genome duplication, leading to polyploidy, is a common macromutation throughout the tree of life and especially in plants. It can have strong impacts across biological scales, from gene expression to cellular processes, to morphology and ecological dynamics. This presentation will summarize knowledge gained in our labs on these impacts using Spirodela polyrhiza as a model study system....
The transition from land to water in Lemnaceae represents an extreme case of reductive evolution, culminating in the minute, rootless genus Wolffia. Aerenchyma explains buoyancy, but not how microscopic fronds remain upright, avoid rolling, and aggregate into cohesive colonies without any biological anchor. We addressed this in Wolffia globosa combining microscopy, surface metrology,...
