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Marchatia

Ginny suggested that we should have a page exposing Marchantia and extolling its virtues as a new chassis

yes she did!

Welcome to Mar-Cam-tiamania Land!!

Let us introduce to you to Marchantia Polymorpha (or Polly for short).
On this page you can find general information about our little plant, the reasons we love her and her path to being the new chassis for plant Synthetic Biology (and some trivia at the end).

Who is Marchantia?

Let's leave the botanical jargon and head to the gardens.
Primitive plants are everywhere and together are called Byrophytes.

Byrophytes are divided into three groups. In evolutionary order these are:
• Marchantiaphytes or Liverworts (that's Poly!)
then came
• Mosses (byrophyta)
and finally the
• Hornworts.
They have no 'vasculature' or lignin and have regular morphology. But let's not underestimate them. Primitve does not mean fragile; quite the contrary they've had more time to optimize themselves. Poly can be found on all continents.

The new Mar-vellous Chassis

OpenPlant

Synthetic Biology conferences used to be like vegetable gardens (or zoos), with every researcher working on different organisms: a longer courgette here, a sweeter tomato there. Great to make some tasty dishes but a real halt for science. The animal field concentrated their forces from dogs and cats to Drosophila fly and the C.elegant worm, and the green handed people went for Arabidopsis or Tabacco.
Focusing on these few and simple organisms allowed science, techniques to be shared and developed by a community and core concepts, true for any higher organisms, emanated from this thrust.
Arabidopsis, is a great plant however some of its disadvantages, long life cycle, height, complex development is refraining progress. A wave is now building up as we speak behind Marchantia to develop it as the new tool for Synthetic Biologists and Plant Scientists. _ Watch this space_ (or even better: read on!)

The Beauty of Simplicity: Advantages of Marchy

Collaborators and future for iGEM

The Welcome Trust has recently given a huge push to the Marchantia Lovers. And these are sprouting from everywhere
For future iGEM groups who'd like to join this Marchantia Community, here are some of the people who are already in the stream (and would love to here from you!) For advice, plant strains to get started or just some info, contact:
• Us!
• The Haseloff group in Cambridge- (home of the OpenPlant)
• Tokyo
• MIT
• JIC
• UEA??
• Online Community!

Marky Fun Facts & Trivia

world records

References