Prof Enrico Coen
Project Leader
Cell and Developmental Biology
Enrico’s research investigates how complex shapes and patterns are produced in plants through genetic and developmental control.
Enrico uses the model plants Antirrhinum, Utricularia and Arabidopsis to investigate flower and leaf growth.
Enrico is interested in shape and pattern, from the cellular to evolutionary level, and uses microscopy, genomics and mathematical modelling techniques to generate broadly applicable mechanisms of development, adaptation and speciation in Antirrhinum.
- Control of plant growth to provide complex patterns and shapes
- Genetic and developmental control of plant development
- Experimental and theoretical approaches to understanding plant fitness and evolution
How do small groups of cells in microscopic buds turn themselves into the diverse flower and leaf shapes we see around us?
To answer this question we need to know how genes and growth interact to create tissue shapes during development, and how this process varies to produce such a remarkable range of forms.
Enrico's group use a highly integrative approach that combines molecular, genetic, imaging, population, ecological and computational approaches to address this problem, applying them to model systems such as Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum.
Through collaborations with Andrew Bangham, Veronica Grieneisen and Stan Marée, they have been able to arrive at mechanistic models for how complex tissue shapes may be generated through combinatorial interactions between genes, polarity and local growth properties.
The group also collaborate with population geneticist Nick Barton to understand the evolution of complex traits in natural populations and species of Antirrhinum.
Contact
enrico.coen@jic.ac.ukSelected Publications
An intracellular partitioning-based framework for tissue cell polarity in plants and animals.
Development 140 p2061-74
Publisher’s version: 10.1242/dev.062984
JAGGED Controls Arabidopsis Petal Growth and Shape by Interacting with a Divergent Polarity Field.
PLoS Biology 11 pe1001550
Publisher’s version: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001550
Generation of leaf shape through early patterns of growth and tissue polarity.
Science 335 p1092-6
Publisher’s version: 10.1126/science.1214678
Generation of spatial patterns through cell polarity switching
Science 333 p1436-1440
Recent Publications
On genes and form.
Development (Cambridge, England) 144 p4203-4213
Publisher’s version: 10.1242/dev.151910
Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs.
Science 358 p925-928
Publisher’s version: 10.1126/science.aao3526
A predictive model of asymmetric morphogenesis from 3D reconstructions of mouse heart looping dynamics.
eLife 6
Publisher’s version: 10.7554/eLife.28951
Formation and Shaping of the Antirrhinum Flower through Modulation of the CUP Boundary Gene.
Current Biology 27 p2610-2622.e3
Publisher’s version: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.064
Growth and Development of Three-Dimensional Plant Form.
Current Biology 27 pR910-R918
Publisher’s version: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.079
Enrico Coen
- Catherine Mansfield Postgraduate Student
- Dr Christopher Whitewoods Postdoctoral Scientist
- Dr Annabel Whibley Postdoctoral Scientist
- Xana Verweij Postdoctoral Scientist
- Dr Paul Southam Postdoctoral Scientist
- Annis Richardson Postgraduate Student
- Dr Jake Newman Postdoctoral Scientist
- Karen Lee Research Assistant
- Richard Kennaway Senior Scientist
- Samantha Fox Research Assistant
- Mabon Elis Postgraduate Student
- Lucy Copsey Research Assistant
- Dr Des Bradley Research Assistant
- Alice Dore Lab Attendant
Awards
Awarded the chance to exhibit research to the public at the 2016 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition
Waddington Medal, British Society for Developmental Biology, 2016
Croonian Medal, Royal Society, 2015
European Molecular Biology Organisation Young Investigator committee member, 2015-18
Elected President of the Genetics Society, 2012
Darwin Medal, 2004
Commander of the British Empire, 2003
Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Science, 2001
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1998
Linnean Gold Medal, 1997
European Molecular Biology Organisation Medal, 1996
Science for Art Prize, LVMH Moet Hennessy, France, 1996
Elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, 1991
Media
For media enquiries, contact the John Innes Centre communications team 01603 450962, jic.communications@jic.ac.uk