Josep Mercadal

This study identifies lateral inhibition as an ancestral mechanism for oil body cell patterning in liverworts, supported by fossil and extant species analyses.

The paper compares dark cells in Paleozoic liverworts with oil body cells in modern liverworts, finding they are homologous structures with similar distribution and function.

This study identifies MYB68 as a regulator of pole-specific endodermal differentiation and suberin patterning in Arabidopsis roots, revealing insights into passage cell function and radial endodermal organization.

This paper uses mathematical modeling to show that diffusion-driven lateral inhibition specifies rhizoid precursor cells in Marchantia polymorpha, consistent with observed patterns in wildtype and mutant plants.

The paper models how BRAVO and WOX5 proteins confine their expression to the Arabidopsis root stem cell niche through negative feedback and diffusion control.