Evolutionary biochemistry to trace the origins and mechanisms of cellular signaling

Date

Jun 12, 2025

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Dolf Weijers

Affiliation

Laboratory of Biochemistry, Wageningen University, Netherlands

Series

MPI-CBG Thursday Seminar

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Anne Grapin-Botton

Description

The behavior of cells is dictated by a multitude of signals, and response mechanisms interpret these signals and define cellular output. While there is a relatively detailed understanding of the mechanisms that perceive, relay and transduce signals in model organisms, it is often poorly understood how these originated and evolved. As a consequence, it is nearly impossible in any extant organism to define which properties of a signaling system are ancestral and which represent specialized, derived features. All cellular signaling, complex or simple, originated from the assembly of multiple components into a pathway. In my talk, I will show how an evolutionary biochemistry approach can not only reveal the origin and evolution of a signaling pathway, but also identify its core design principles and inspire the discovery of new response pathways. I will use examples from our ongoing research program on the plant signaling molecule auxin and show how the use of comparative phylogenetic strategies, combined with mechanistic, genetic and biochemical analysis within a simple model system, allows to reconstruct the origin and evolution of a complex signaling system. I will also show how evolutionary innovations in transcription factors have led to the emergence of a competition-based system of nuclear protein condensates. Lastly, I will show how – through an evolutionary lens – we have discovered a deeply conserved, ancient, yet unsuspected auxin response system that urges questions about the ancestral function of this signaling molecule.

Last modified: Jun 12, 2025, 7:35:41 AM