Elliot Meyerowitz
Distinguished Associate
Laboratory's Inaugural Director (Jan 2011-Dec 2012)
University of Cambridge
Bateman Street
Cambridge CB2 1LR
Office Phone: 01223 761107
Research Interests
My laboratory has the goal of understanding the mechanisms of plant development, using both experimental and computational methods to test hypotheses. We concentrate 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 utilizes a number of different pattern-forming processes that are as yet poorly understood. Our experimental organism is predominantly Arabidopsis thaliana, because of the ease with which genetic and molecular biological studies can be done using that model system. We also use other plant species in the laboratory when they offer an experimental advantage. Our method of study is what we have termed Computational Morphodynamics – the combination of real-time live imaging to capture the dynamics of plant development, couching our hypotheses as mathematical models (so as to be absolutely explicit about assumptions and parameters), and then testing them computationally and experimentally. We concentrate on three processes in plant development - the development of flowers, the growth of shoots, and the de novo generation of shoot meristems during regeneration.
Key Publications
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, in press.
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 32, 2375-2389. PMCID: PMC9240970 https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.01.31.478342v1
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 371, 1350-1355. PMCID: PMC81663
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 56, 540-556. PMCID: PMC8519405
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
