OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Angiosperm reproductive structures (anthers and ovules/seeds) are complex assemblies containing highly specialized, metabolically diverse, and in some cases genetically distinct compartments. Their successful development depends both on strict inter-tissue coordination, and upon selectively gated inter-tissue communication, particularly at the metabolic level. For these two requirements to be met, dynamic, extensive, and precise remodelling of tissue interfaces, affecting both symplastic (direct cytoplasm-cytoplasm) and apoplastic (involving diffusion through the extracellular matrix) connectivity, is a prerequisite. In the first part of my talk I will concentrate on apoplastic modifications occurring between key compartments in the developing seeds and anthers of Arabidopsis thaliana. I will use both published and unpublished work to illustrate how peptide-mediated inter-tissue dialogues are used in both systems to ensure the timely deposition of intact apoplastic filters (barriers). In the second part of my presentation I will present recent unpublished work on the functional and compositional characterisation of a novel apoplastic filter (barrier) present within the maternal tissues of the developing anther.