Meyerowitz Group
Elliot Meyerowitz
Distinguished Associate
Laboratory's Inaugural Director (Jan 2011-Dec 2012)
Email: Elliot.Meyerowitz@slcu.cam.ac.uk
The Meyerowitz laboratory studies the development of Arabidopsis thaliana, a widely used plant model system that his laboratory (and others) popularised beginning in the early 1980s. Current studies concentrate on the interrelated roles of mechanical and chemical signaling in plant morphogenesis, and on single-cell and spatial transcriptomic approaches to shoot meristem function.
Research aims and approach
The laboratory has the goal of understanding the mechanisms of plant development, using both experimental and computational methods to test hypotheses. It concentrates on the shoot apical meristem and its derivative structures (primarily flowers), because this meristem is responsible for the development of the entire above-ground part of the mature plant, and utilises a number of different pattern-forming processes that are as yet poorly understood.
Microtubule arrays in the cells of an Arabidopsis thaliana leaf
Depth color-coded time series images showing changes in microtubule organisation following compression. Imaging by Arun Sampathkumar and Elliot Meyerowitz.
Experimental system
The experimental organism is predominantly Arabidopsis thaliana, because of the ease with which genetic and molecular biological studies can be done using that model system. The laboratory also uses other plant species when they offer an experimental advantage.
Computational Morphodynamics
Its method of study is what has been termed Computational Morphodynamics – the combination of real-time live imaging to capture the dynamics of plant development, couching hypotheses as mathematical models (so as to be absolutely explicit about assumptions and parameters), and then testing them computationally and experimentally.
Core research focus
The laboratory concentrates on three processes in plant development - the development of flowers, the growth of shoots, and the de novo generation of shoot meristems during regeneration.
Schuster, C., Gabel, A., Drost, H.G., Grosse, I., Leyser, O. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2026) Evolutionary transcriptomics unveils rapid changes of gene expression patterns in flowering plants, Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.015
Landrein, B., Abley, K., Formosa-Jordan, P., Meyerowitz, E.M., Jönsson, H. and Locke, J.C.W. (2025) Plasticity and invariance of Arabidopsis inflorescence and floral shoot apical meristems in response to mineral nutrients, bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.31.635844v1
Lan, M., Zhu, Y., Peaucelle, A., Zhu, X., Liu, Y., Cao, X., Gurzadyan, A., Gao, G., Cai, W., Gruel, J., Haas, K., Jönsson, H., Hamant, O., Wightman, R., Meyerowitz, E. and Yang, W. (2025) CSLD-5-mediated cell wall remodelling regulates tissue mechanics and shoot meristem growth, Nature Communications, 16, Article Number 7229. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62651-8
Walia, A., Carter, R., Wightman, R., Meyerowitz, E.M., *Jönsson, H. and *Jones, A.M. (2024) Differential growth is an emergent property of mechanochemical feedback mechanisms in curved plant organs, Developmental Cell, 59, 3245-3258. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.09.021
Yamoune, A., Žďárská, M., Depaepe, T., Korytářová, A., Skalák, J., Berendzen, K.W., Mira-Rodado, V., Tarr, P., Špačková, E., Baďurová, L., Pařízková, B., Franczyk, A., Kováčová, I., Pernisová, M., Novak, O., Meyerowitz, E.M., Harter, K., van der Straeten, D., and *Hejátko, J. (2024) Cytokinins regulate spatially-specific ethylene production to control root growth in Arabidopsis, Plant Communications, 5, 101013. DOI: 10.1016/j.xplc.2024.101013
*Bou Daher, F., Serra, L., Carter, R., Jönsson, H., Robinson, S., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Gray, W.M. (2024) Xyloglucan deficiency leads to a reduction in turgor pressure and changes in cell wall properties, affecting early seedling establishment, Current Biology, 34, 2094-2106.e6. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.016
*Afik, E., Liu, T.J.B. and *Meyerowitz, E.M. (2023) Macroscopic waves, biological clocks and morphogenesis driven by light in a giant unicellular green alga, Nature Communications, 14, article number 6204. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41813-6
*Nicolas, W.J., Jensen, G.J. and Meyerowitz E.M. (2022) Focused ion beam milling and cryo-electron tomography methods to study the structure of the primary cell wall in Allium cepa, Bio-protocol, 12(23): e4559. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4559
Sampathkumar, A. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2022) Cellulose synthase complexes–microtubules interaction hinders mechano-response. Nature Plants 8, 988-989. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01221-y
Schneider, R., Ehrhardt, D.W., Meyerowitz E.M. and Sampathkumar, A. (2022) Tethering of Cellulose Synthase to Microtubules Dampens Mechano-induced Cytoskeletal Organization in Arabidopsis Pavement Cells. Nature Plants. DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01218-7
Nicolas, W.J., Faessler, F., Schur, F.K.M., Dutka, P., Jensen, G.J. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2022) Cryo-electron tomography of the onion cell wall shows bimodally oriented cellulose fibers and reticulated homogalacturonan networks. Current Biology DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.024
Yang, W., Cortijo, S., Korsbo, N., Roszak, P., Schiessl, K., Gurzadyan, A., Wightman, R., Jönsson, H. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2021) Molecular mechanism of cytokinin-activated cell division in Arabidopsis. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abe2305
Refahi, Y., Zardilis, A., Michelin, G., Wightman, R., Leggio, B., Legrand, J., Faure, E., Vachez, L., Armezzani, A., Risson, A., Zhao, F., Das, P., Prunet, N., Meyerowitz, E., Godin, C., Malandain, G., Jonsson, H., and Traas, J. (2021) A multiscale analysis of early flower development in Arabidopsis provides an integrated view of molecular regulation and growth control. Devel. Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.01.019
Nicolas, W.J., Ghosal, D., Tocheva, E.I., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jensen, G.J. (2021) Structure of the bacterial cellulose ribbon and its assembly-guiding cytoskeleton by electron cryotomography. J. Bact. 203, e00371-20. PMCID: PMC7811197 DOI: 10.1128/JB.00371-20
Han, H., Geng, Y., Guo, L., Yan, A., Meyerowitz E.M., Liu, X. and Zhou, Y. (2020) The overlapping and distinct roles of HAM family genes in control of Arabidopsis shoot meristems. Front. Plant Sci. 04 September 2020 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.541968 PMCID: PMC7498855
Durand-Smet., P., Spelman, T., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jönsson, H. (2020) Cytoskeletal organization in isolated plant cells under geometry control. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 117, 17399-17408. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003184117 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/784595v1 PMCID: PMC7382239
Guerrero Peña, F.A., Marrero Fernandez, P.D., Tarr, P.T., Ren, T.I., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Cunha, A. (2020) J regularization improves imbalanced multiclass segmentation. 2020 IEEE 17th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), Iowa City, IA, USA, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/ISBI45749.2020.9098550 https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.09783
Haas, K.T., Wightman, R., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Peaucelle, A. (2020) Pectin homogalacturonan nanofilament expansion drives morphogenesis in plant epidermal cells. Science 367, 1003-1007. PMID: 32108107 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz5103 PMCID: PMC7932746
Yang, W., Schuster, C., Prunet, N., Dong, Q., Landrein, B., Wightman, R. and Meyerowitz E.M. (2020) Visualization of protein coding, long non-coding and nuclear RNAs by fish in sections of Arabidopsis shoot apical meristems and developing flowers. Plant Physiol. 182, 147-158. doi:10.1104/pp.19.00980 PMCID: PMC6945838
Li, T., An, Y. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2019) Live imaging-assisted domain-specific CRISPR genome editing at single cell resolution in plants. http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/793240v1
Zdarska, M., Cuyacot, A.R., Tarr, P.T., Yamoune, A., Szmitkowska, V., Hrdinová, V., Gelova, Z., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Hejatko, J. (2019) ETR1 Integrates Ethylene and Cytokinins into a Single Multistep Phosphorelay Pathway to Control Root Growth. Molecular Plant 12, 1338-1352. PMCID: PMC8040967 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2019.05.012.
Sampathkumar, A., Peaucelle, A., Fujita, M., Schuster, C., Persson, S., Wasteneys, G.O. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2019) Primary wall cellulose synthase regulates shoot apical meristem mechanics and growth. Development 146, dev179036. doi:10.1242/dev.179036 PMCID: PMC6550022
Ishihara, H., Sugimoto, K., Tarr, P., Temman, H., Kadokura, S., Inui, Y., Sakamoto, T., Sasaki, T., Aida, M., Suzuki, T., Inagaki, S., Morohashi, K., Seki, M., Kakutani, T., Meyerowitz, E., Matsunaga, S. (2019) Primed histone demethylation regulates shoot regenerative competency. Nature Commun. 10: 1786. PMCID: PMC6467990
Li, T., Yan, A., Bhatia, N., Altinok, A., Afik, E., Durand-Smet, P., Tarr, P.T., Schroeder, J.I., Heisler, M.G., and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2019) Calcium signals are necessary to establish auxin transporter polarity in a plant stem cell niche. Nature Commun. 10: 726. PMCID: PMC6374474
Xu, Y., Prunet, N.E., Gan, E.-S., Wang, Y., Stewart, D., Wellmer, F., Huang, J., Jack, T.P., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Ito, T. (2018) SUPERMAN regulates floral whorl boundaries through control of auxin biosynthesis. EMBO J. 37, e97499. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.201797499
Liu, T.L., Upadhyayula, S., Milkie, D.E., Singh, V., Wang, K., Swinburne, I, Mosaliganti, K., Collins, Z., Hiscock, T.W., Shea, J., Kohrman, A.Q., Medwig, T.N., Dambournet, D., Forster, R., Cunniff, B., Ruan, Y., Yashiro, H., Scholpp, S., Meyerowitz, E.M., Hockemeyer, D., Drubin, D.G., Martin, B.L., Matus, D.Q., Koyama, M., Megason, S., Kirchhausen, T. and Betzig, E. (2018) Observing the cell in Its native state: Imaging subcellular dynamics in multicellular organisms. Science 360, 284. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaq1392 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/09/243352
Mirabet, V., Krupinski, P., Hamant, O., Meyerowitz, E.M., Jönsson, H., and Boudaoud, A. (2018) The self-organization of plant microtubules in three dimensions enables stable cortical localization and sensitivity to external cues. PLoS Comput Biol 14(2): e1006011. PMCID: PMC5834207 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006011. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/27/210138
Melnyk, C.W., Gabel, A., Hardcastle, T.J., Robinson, S., Miyashima, S., Grosse, I., and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2018) Transcriptome dynamics at Arabidopsis graft junctions reveal an inter-tissue recognition mechanism that activates vascular regeneration. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 115, E2447-E2456. PMCID: PMC5878008 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/18/198598
Landrein, B., Formosa-Jordon, P., Malivert, A., Schuster, C., Melnyk, C.W., Yang, W., Turnbull, C., Meyerowitz, E.M., Locke, J.C.W. and Jönsson, H (2018) Nitrate modulates stem cell dynamics in Arabidopsis shoot meristems through cytokinins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115, 1382-1387. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/09/200303
Yang, W., Wightman, R. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2017) Cell cycle control by nuclear sequestration of CDC20 and Cdh1 mRNA in plant stem cells. Molec. Cell 68, 1108-1119. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/05/198978
Caggiano. M.P., Yu, X., Bhatia, N., Larsson, A., Ram, H., Ohno, C., Sappl, P., Meyerowitz, E.M, Jönsson, H. and Heisler M.G. (2017) Cell type boundaries organize plant development. eLife 2017;6:e27421 doi: 10.7554/eLife.27421. PMCID: PMC5617630
Prunet, N., Yang, W., Das, P., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jack, T.P. (2017) SUPERMAN prevents stamen formation and promotes stem cell termination in the fourth whorl of the Arabidopsis flower. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114, 7166-7171. PMCID: PMC5502645
Willis, L., Refahi, Y., Wightman, R., Landrein, B., Teles, J., Huang, K.C., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jönsson, H. (2016) Cell size and growth regulation in the Arabidopsis thaliana apical stem cell niche. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 113, E8238-E8246, doi:10.1073/pnas.1616768113. PMCID: PMC5187701
Yang, W., Schuster, C., Beahan, C.T., Charoensawan, V., Peaucelle, A., Bacic, A., Doblin, M.S., Wightman, R. and Meyerowitz E.M. (2016) Regulation of meristem morphogenesis by cell wall synthases in Arabidopsis. Current Biology 26, 1404-1415. PMCID: PMC5024349
Tobin, C. J. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2016) Real-time lineage analysis to study cell division orientation in the Arabidopsis shoot meristem. Plant Cell Division Methods and Protocols, ed. M.C. Caillaud, Methods in Molecular Biology 1370, 147- 167. doi 10.1007/978-1-4939-2_12.
Gruel, J., Landrein, B., Tarr, P., Schuster, C., Refahi, Y., Sampathkumar, A., Hamant, O., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jönsson, H. (2016) An epidermis-driven mechanism positions and scales stem cell niches in plants. Sci. Adv. 2, e1500989. PMCID: PMC4846443
Provart, N. J., Alonso, J., Assmann, S. M., Bergmann, D., Brady, S. M., Brkljacic, J., Browse, J., Chapple ,C., Colot, V., Cutler, S., Dangl, J., Ehrhardt, D., Friesner, J. D., Frommer, W. B., Grotewold, E., Meyerowitz, E.M., Nemhauser, J., Nordborg, M., Pikaard, C., Shanklin, J., Somerville, C., Stitt, M., Torii, K. U., Waese, J., Wagner, D. and McCourt, P. (2016) Tansley Review, 50 years of Arabidopsis research: highlights and future directions. New Phytologist 209, 921-944. DOI: 10.1111/nph.13687
Luo, C.J., Wightman, R., Meyerowitz, E.M., and Smoukov, S. (2015) 3D fibre scaffold as an investigative tool for studying the morphogenesis of isolated plant cells. BMC Plant Biology 15, 211 doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0581-7 PMCID: PMC4550058
Melnyk, C.W., Schuster, C., Leyser, O., and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2015) A developmental framework for graft formation and vascular reconnection in Arabidopsis thaliana, Curr. Biol. 25, 1306-1318. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.032 NIHMSID 766222
Shapiro, B.E., Tobin, C., Mjolsness, E.M. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2015) Analysis of cell division patterns in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112, 4815-4820. PMCID: PMC4403164
Kareem, A., Durgaprasad, K., Sugimoto, K., Du, Y., Pulianmackal, A.J., Trivedi, Z.B., Abhayadev, P.V., Pinon, V., Meyerowitz, E.M., Scheres. B., and Prasad, K. (2015) PLETHORA genes control regeneration by a two-step mechanism. Curr. Biol. 25, 1017-1030. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.02.022
Nimchuk, Z.L., Zhou, Y., Tarr, P.T., Peterson, B.A., and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2015) Plant stem cell maintenance by transcriptional cross regulation of related receptor kinases. Development 142, 1043-1049. DOI: 10.1242/dev.119677. PMCID: PMC4360179
Melnyk, C.W. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2015) Plant Grafting. Curr. Biol. 25, R183-R188. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.01.029
Zhou, Y., Liu, X., Engstrom, E.M., Nimchuk, Z.L., Pruneda-Paz, J., Tarr, P.T., Yan, A., Kay, S.A., and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2015) Control of plant stem cell function by conserved interacting transcriptional regulators. Nature 517, 377-380. doi:10.1038/nature13853 PMCID: PMC4297503
Sampathkumar, A., Krupinski, P., Wightman, R., Milani, P., Berquand, A., Boudaoud, A., Hamant, O., Jönsson, H. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2014) Subcellular and supracellular mechanical stress prescribes cytoskeleton behavior in Arabidopsis cotyledon cells. eLife 2014;3:e01967 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01967 PMCID: PMC3985187
Qi, J., Wang, Y., Yu, T., Cunha, A., Wu, B., Vernoux, T., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jiao, Y. (2014) Auxin depletion from leaf primordia contributes to organ patterning. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, 18769-18774.
Wang, Y., Wang, J., Shi, B., Yu, T. Qi. J., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Jiao, Y. (2014) The stem cell niche in leaf axils is established by auxin and cytokinin in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 26, 2055-2067. PMCID: PMC4079368
Sampathkumar, A., Yan, A., Krupinski, P. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2014) Physical forces regulate plant development and morphogenesis. Curr. Biol.24, R475-R483. PMCID: PMC4049271
Sampathkumar, A., Krupinski, P., Wightman, R., Milani, P., Berquand, A., Boudaoud, A., Hamant, O., Jönsson, H. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2014) Subcellular and supracellular mechanical stress prescribes cytoskeleton behavior in Arabidopsis cotyledon cells. eLife 2014;3:e01967 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01967
Wellmer, F; Bowman, J.L., Davies, B., Férrandiz, C., Fletcher, J.C., Franks, R.G., Graciet, E., Gregis, V., Ito, T., Jack, T.P., Jiao, Y., Kater, M.M., Ma, H., Meyerowitz, E.M., Prunet, N., and Riechmann, J.L. (2014) Flower development: Open questions and future directions. Methods in Molecular Biology 1110, 103-124.
Shapiro, B.E., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Mjolsness, E.M. (2013) Using Cellzilla for Plant Growth Simulations. Frontiers in Plant Science doi: 10.3389/fpls.2013.00408
Li, W., Zhou, Y., Liu, X., Yu, P., Cohen, J. D., & Meyerowitz, E. M. (2013). LEAFY controls auxin response pathways in floral primordium formation. Science Signaling, 6(270), ra23. doi:10.1126/scisignal.2003937 PMID: 23572147
Zhang, X., Zhou, Y., Lian, D., Wu, S., Liu, R. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2013) Transcription repressor HANABA TARANU (HAN) controls flower development via integrating multiple hormone actions, floral organ specification and GATA3 family auto-regulation. Plant Cell 25, 83-101. PMID: 23335616
Sugimoto, K. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2013) Regeneration in Arabidopsis tissue culture. In Methods in Molecular Biology: Plant Organogenesis, ed. I. de Smet, Springer, pp. 265-276, ISBN 978-1-62703-220-9. PMID: 23299682
Bowman, J.L., Smyth, D.R. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2012) The ABC model of flower development: then and now. Development 139, 4095-4098. doi:10.1242/dev.083972 PMID: 23093420
Roeder, A.H.K., Cunha, A., Ohno, C.K. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2012) Cell cycle regulates cell type in the Arabidopsis sepal. Development 139, 4416-4427. doi: 10.1242/dev.082925 PMID: 23095885
Segonzac, C., Nimchuk, Z.L., Beck, M., Tarr, P.T., Robatzek, S., Meyerowitz, E.M. and Zipfel, C. (2012) The shoot apical meristem regulatory peptide CLV3 does not activate innate immunity. Plant Cell 24, 3186-3192. doi: 10.1105/tpc.111.091264 PMID: 22923673
Roeder, A.H.K., Cunha, A., Burl, M.C. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2012) Computational image analysis glossary for biologists. Development 139, 3071-3080. doi: 10.1242/dev.076414 PMID: 22872081
Chickarmane, V.S., Gordon, S.P., Tarr, P.T., Heisler, M.G. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2012) Cytokinin signaling as a positional cue for patterning the apical-basal axis of the growing Arabidopsis shoot meristem. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 109, 4002-4007 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200636109 PMCID: PMC3309735 PMID: 22345559
Cunha, A., Tarr, P.T., Roeder, A.H.K., Altinok, A., Mjolsness, E. and Meyerowitz, E.M. (2012) Computational analysis of live cell images of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant. Methods Cell Biol. 110, 285-323. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-38803-9.00012-6 PMID: 22482954