Main research interests

Flower development, transcriptional regulation, modeling of genetic interaction networks, link between genes and shapes, transcriptional regulation of genes involved in cell wall remodelling.

Selection of 3 major recent publications

J. Traas and F. Monéger (2010). Systems biology of organ initiation at the shoot apex. Plant Physiology 152 (2): 420-427.

C. La Rota, J. Chopard, P. Das, S. Paindavoine, F. Rozier, E. Farcot, C. Godin, J. Traas and F. Monéger (2011). A data-driven integrative model of sepal primordium polarity in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 23: 4318-4333.

M.C. Reymond, G. Brunoud, A. Chauvet, J.F. Martínez-Garcia, M.L. Martin-Magniette, F. Monéger and C.P. Scutt. (2012). A light-regulated genetic module was recruited to carpel development in Arabidopsis following a structural change to SPATULA. Plant Cell 24(7): 2812-25.

Biography

Françoise Monéger is a senior scientist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in the laboratory Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, located at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon. She is part of the Floral Meristem team.

She realized her PhD in 1990 under the supervision of Régis Mache on the analysis of chloroplastic and mitochondrial genome during microsporogenesis in maize. She then worked for 5 years in Chris Leaver’s laboratory (Oxford, UK) on the molecular basis of cytoplasmic male sterility in sunflower. She was recruited at the CNRS in 1994. With her colleagues, she identified the first genes located on plant sex chromosomes in Silene latifolia. This discovery allowed to trace the evolutionary history of sex chromosomes.

In 2004, she decided to switch to the model plant Arabidopsis to adress fundamental question in developmental biology. With her colleagues, she identified target genes of several transcription factors involved in flower morphogenesis. She is now establishing links between transcription factors and cell wall remodelling components in order to understand how growth rates and directions are controlled and lead to proper morphogenesis. In parallel, she initiated a collaboration with computer scientists to reconstruct integrative genetic regulatory network, using the flower of Arabidopsis as a model. She is now participating to the Netbio working group to investigate the inference of genetic interaction network from transcriptomic data.  

Every year, she is teaching at the ENS a course on polarity establishment in Arabidopsis flower.

Address

Françoise Monéger
Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon
46 Allée d'Italie
69364 LYON
tel (33) 4 72 72 89 85
fax (33) 4 72 72 86 00

francoise.moneger[at]ens-lyon.fr

http://www.ens-lyon.fr/RDP/spip.php?rubrique16&lang=fr