ID: 613 / 12

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: ADVANCES IN FLOWER DEVELOPMENT: THE PIVOTAL TREATISE OF PAYER REVISITED

Abstract: In his “Traité d’organogénie comparée de la fleur” (1854, first edition, 170 years ago), Jean-Baptiste Payer described, illustrated and commented on the floral organogenesis and morphogenesis in numerous families of (mostly) temperate flowering plants. This astonishing piece of work was achieved before his premature death at 42 years old with the use of basic microscopic tools. Thanks to careful observations of dissected material mainly provided by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and thanks to his broad botanical knowledge, he came up with original interpretations and hypotheses about floral ontogeny that were mostly innovative, and were confirmed by subsequent works in many cases. Based on an unprecedented sampling (in terms of species number and taxonomic diversity), he brought up novel ideas regarding for instance flower construction rules, phyllotaxis, obdiplostemony, (pseudo-)monomery, and (con-/post) genital fusion of organs. Since his seminal and pivotal work, studies of the floral development have relied on improved techniques (e.g. imaging techniques such as SEM and CT-scanning) and conceptual advances relative to the genetic determinism of floral development, phylogenetic relationships among angiospermous taxa, inflorescence ontogeny, modeling of development, and developmental morphospace analyses. We invite contributions shedding light on such methodological, technical and conceptual evolutions in the field of floral development, with a special focus on Payer’s legacy.

Speaker 1: * Dr. Junru Wang * Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh * jwang@rbge.org.uk * Merism of Begoniaceae: An issue of numbers

Speaker 2: * Dr. Somayeh Naghiloo * Formerly at Univ. Calgary, Canada. Now independent researcher. * some_naghiloo@yahoo.com * Patterns of symmetry expression in Angiosperms: developmental and evolutionary lability

Speaker 3: * Prof. Peter Endress * Univ. Zurich * peter.endress@systbot.uzh.ch * Title Flower morphology then and now

Topics (Up to three): Main Topic: Structure, physiology and development, including evo-devo

Topic 2: Development and Structure

Topic 3: Botanical history

Justification: Within the main topic of “Structure, physiology and development, including evo-devo”, this symposium combines two of the 31 proposed minor topics, namely “Development and structure” and “Botanical history”. We assume that the topic of this symposium is large enough to attract high-quality contribution from colleagues from all over the world that are keen on flower development, and its links with systematics and evo-devo. We expect a diversity of speakers in terms of gender and career stage to apply for a contribution, and we will make sure this diversity will translate into our choice of speakers.