Ikram Blilou, PhD

Principal Investigator

Professor in Plant Science​​​​​​​

Current

Location:

Office: Bld. 2, Lev. 3, 3274

Social Profile:

Research Interests

Root system architecture, Arabidopsis, date palm, plant development, pattern formation, growth/defense trade-offs in plants, gene regulatory networks, stem cell specification, asymmetric c​ell division, plant hormones, regulation of protein movement, mapping protein complexes, transcriptional regulation, microscopy, and fluorescence lifetime imaging. 

Selected Publications

  • Blilou, Ikram, et al. 2005. The PIN auxin efflux facilitator network control growth and patterning in Arabidopsis roots. Nature. 433. 39-44. Impact factor: 41.456.
  • Wildwater, M., Campilho, A., Perez-Perez, J.M., Heidstra, R., Blilou, Ikram et al. 2005. The Retinoblastoma related gene regulates stem cell maintenance in Arabidopsis. Cell, 123: 1337-1349. Impact factor: 32.242.
  • Wiśniewska, J., Xu, J., Seifertová, D., Brewer, P., Růžička, K., Blilou, Ikram et al. 2006. Polar PIN localization directs auxin flow in plants. Science. 312: 883. Impact factor: 33.611.
  • Welch, D., Blilou, Ikram., Hassan, H.#., Heidstra, R., Scheres, B. 2007. Arabidopsis JACKDAW and MAGPIE zinc finger proteins delimit asymmetric cell division and stabilize tissue boundaries by restricting SHORT-ROOT action. Genes Dev 21: 2196-2204. Impact factor: 12.64.
  • Galinha, C., Hofhuis, H., Luijten, M., Willemsen, V., Blilou, Ikram, Heidstra, R., Scheres, B. 2007. PLETHORA proteins as dose-dependent master regulators of Arabidopsis root development". Nature. 2007. 449:1053-7. Impact factor: 41.456.
  • Cui, H., Levesque, M., Vernoux, T., Jung, JW., Paquette, A., Gallagher, K.., Wang, J., Blilou, Ikram, Scheres, B., Benfey, P. 2007. An Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanism Delimiting SHR Movement Defines a Single Layer of Endodermis in Plants. Science, 316: 421-425. Impact factor: 33.611.
  • Hassan, H., Scheres, B., Blilou, Ikram. 2010. JACKDAW controls epidermal patterning in the Arabidopsis root meristem through a non-cell-autonomous mechanism. Development,137: 1523-9. Impact factor:6.462.
  • Cruz-Ramírez A, Díaz-Triviño S, Blilou, Ikram, et al., 2012 A Bistable Circuit Involving SCARECROW-RETINOBLASTOMA Integrates Cues to Inform Asymmetric Stem Cell Division. Cell, 150, 1002-1015. Impact factor: 32.242.
  • Long, Y., Smet, W, Cruz-Ramírez, A, Castelijns, B., de Jonge, W, Mähönen, AP., Bouchet, BP., Sanchez Perez, G., Akhmanova, A., Scheres, B., Blilou, Ikram. 2015. The zinc finger BIRD proteins jointly stabilize tissue boundaries by confining the cell fate regulator SHORT-ROOT and contributing to fate specification in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell, 27, 1185–1199. Impact factor: 10.53.
  • Moreno-Risueno, M., Rosangela Sozzani, R., Gürkan Yardimici, G., Petricka, J., Vernoux, T., Blilou, Ikram, Alonso, J., Winter, C., Ohle, O., Scheres, B., Benfey, P. 2015. Transcriptional control of tissue formation throughout root development. Science. 350, 426-430. Impact factor: 33.61111.
  • Y.Long, Y. Stahl, S. Weidtkamp-Peters, M. Postma, W. Zhou, J. Goedhart, TWG Jr. Gadella, R. Simon, B. Scheres & Ikram Blilou. 2017. In vivo FRET-FLIM reveals cell type-specific protein interactions in Arabidopsis roots. Nature, 548, 97–102, Impact factor 40.137.
  • Xiao, T., Raygoza, A.A., Pérez, J.C., Kirschner, G., Deng, Y., Atkinson, B., Sturrock, C., Lube, Vinicius, Wang, J.Y., Lubineau, G. and Al-Babili, S., Ramírez, L.A.C., Bennett, M.J., Blilou​, Ikram. 2019. Emergent Protective Organogenesis in Date Palms: A Morpho-devo-dynamic Adaptive Strategy During Early Development. The Plant Cell, pp.tpc-00008​.
  • Aragón-Raygoza, A., Vasco, A., Blilou, I., Herrera-Estrella, L., Cruz-Ramírez, A. 2020. Development and Cell Cycle Activity of the Root Apical Meristem in the Fern Ceratopteris richardii. Genes. 11, 1455.  https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11121455.
  • Gundu, S., Tabassum, N., and Blilou, I., 2020. Moving with purpose and direction: transcription factor movement and cell fate determination revisited. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 57, pp.124-132.
  • Clark, N. M., Van den Broeck, L., Guichard, M., Stager, A., Tanner, H. G., Blilou, I., Grossmann, G., Iyer-Pascuzzi, A. S., Maizel, A., Sparks, E. E. & Sozzani, R. 2020. Novel Imaging Modalities Shedding Light on Plant Biology: Start Small and Grow Big. Annual review of plant biology. 71, 1, p. 789-816 28 p.
  • Long, Y., Stahl, Y., Weidtkamp-Peters, S., & Blilou, I. 2020. Visualizing Protein Associations in Living Arabidopsis Embryo. Plant Embryogenesis, 167–188. doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-0342-0_13.

Recent publications

2018

  • Shimotohno, A., Heidstra, R., Blilou, Ikram, Scheres, B. 2018. Root stem cell niche organizer specification by molecular convergence of PLETHORA and SCARECROW transcription factor modules. Genes Dev. 32: 1085-1100.
  • Long, Yuchen, Yvonne Stahl, Stefanie Weidtkamp-Peters, Wouter Smet, Yujuan Du, Theodorus WJ Gadella Jr, Joachim Goedhart, Ben Scheres, and Ikram Blilou. "Optimizing FRET-FLIM labeling conditions to detect nuclear protein interactions at native expression levels in living Arabidopsis roots." Frontiers in plant science 9 (2018). Corresponding Author.
  • Abulfaraj, A., Mariappan, K., Bigeard,J., Manickam, P., Blilou, Ikram, Guo,  X., Al-Babili, S., Pflieger, D., Hirt, H., Rayapuram, N. 2018. The Arabidopsis homolog of human G3BP1 is a key regulator of stomatal and apoplastic immunity. Life Science Alliance. DOI: 10.26508/lsa.201800046.
  • Chakrabortty, Bandan, Ikram Blilou, Ben Scheres, and Bela M. Mulder. "A computational framework for cortical microtubule dynamics in realistically shaped plant cells." PLoS computational biology 14, no. 2 (2018): e1005959.

2017

  • Outchkourov, Nikolay S., Rumyana Karlova, Matthijs Hölscher, Xandra Schrama, Ikram Blilou, Esmer Jongedijk, Carmen Diez Simon et al. "Transcription factor-mediated control of anthocyanin biosynthesis in vegetative tissues." Plant physiology 176, no. 2 (2018): 1862-1878.
  • Moreno-Pachon, Natalia M., Marie-Chantal Mutimawurugo, Eveline Heynen, Lidiya Sergeeva, Anne Benders, Ikram Blilou, Henk WM Hilhorst, and Richard GH Immink. "Role of Tulipa gesneriana TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 (TgTB1) in the control of axillary bud outgrowth in bulbs." Plant reproduction 31, no. 2 (2018): 145-157.
  • Long, Y., Stahl, Y., Weidtkamp-Peters, S., Postma, M., Zhou, W., Goedhart, J., Sánchez-Pérez, M.I., Gadella, T.W., Simon, R., Scheres, B. and Blilou, Ikram, 2017. In vivo FRET–FLIM reveals cell-type-specific protein interactions in Arabidopsis roots. Nature, 548(7665), p.97.
  • Díaz-Triviño, Sara, Yuchen Long, Ben Scheres, and Ikram Blilou. "Analysis of a plant transcriptional regulatory network using transient expression systems." In Plant Gene Regulatory Networks, pp. 83-103. Humana Press, New York, NY, 2017.
  • Horvath, B.M., Kourova, H., Nagy, S., Nemeth, E., Magyar, Z., Papdi, C., Ahmad, Z., Sanchez‐Perez, G.F., Perilli, S., Blilou, Ikram, and Pettkó‐Szandtner, A., 2017. Arabidopsis RETINOBLASTOMA RELATED directly regulates DNA damage responses through functions beyond cell cycle control. The EMBO journal, p.e201694561.

2016

  • Clark, Natalie M., Elizabeth Hinde, Cara M. Winter, Adam P. Fisher, Giuseppe Crosti, Ikram Blilou, Enrico Gratton, Philip N. Benfey, and Rosangela Sozzani. "Tracking transcription factor mobility and interaction in Arabidopsis roots with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy." Elife 5 (2016): e14770. Impact factor: 8.3.

2015

  • Long, Y., Goedhart, J., Schneijderberg, M., Tepstra, I., Shimotohno,A., . Bouchet, B., Akhmanova, A. Gadella, W.J., Heidstra, R., Scheres, B., Blilou, Ikram. 2015. SCARECROW-LIKE23 and SCARECROW jointly specify endodermal cell fate but distinctly control SHORT-ROOT movement. Plant Journal (DOI: 10.1111/tpj.13038). Impact factor: 5.972. Corresponding Author.
  • Moreno-Risueno, M., Rosangela Sozzani, R., Gürkan Yardimici, G., Petricka, J., Vernoux, T., Blilou, Ikram, Alonso, J., Winter, C., Ohle, O., Scheres, B., Benfey, P. 2015. Transcriptional control of tissue formation throughout root development. Science. 350, 426-430. Impact factor: 33.611.
  • Cherif, H., Marasco, R., Rolli, E., Ferjani, R., Fusi, M., Soussi, A., Mapelli, F., Blilou, Ikram, Borin, S., Boudabous, A., Cherif, A., Daffonchio, D. and Ouzari, H. 2015. Oasis desert farming selects environment-specific date palm root endophytic communities and cultivable bacteria that promote resistance to drought. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 7: 668–678. Impact factor: 3.293.
  • Long, Y., Smet, W, Cruz-Ramírez, A, Castelijns, B., de Jonge, W, Mähönen, AP., Bouchet, BP., Sanchez Perez, G., Akhmanova, A., Scheres, B., Blilou, Ikram. 2015. The zinc finger BIRD proteins jointly stabilize tissue boundaries by confining the cell fate regulator SHORT-ROOT and contributing to fate specification in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell, 27, 1185–1199. Impact factor: 10.53. Corresponding Author.
  • Long Y, Scheres B, Blilou, Ikram. 2015.The logic of communication: roles for mobile transcription factors in plants. Journal of Experimental Botany. 66:1133-1144. Review. Impact factor: 5.526. Corresponding Author.
  • Kinoshita A, Ten Hove CA, Tabata R, Yamada M, Shimizu N, Ishida T, Yamaguchi K, Shigenobu S, Takebayashi Y, Iuchi S, Kobayashi M, Kurata T, Wada T, Seo M, Hasebe M, Blilou Ikram, Fukuda H, Scheres B, Heidstra R, Kamiya Y, Sawa S. 2015. A plant U-box protein, PUB4, regulates asymmetric cell division and cell proliferation in the root meristem. Development. 142:444-53. Impact factor: 6.462.

Awards

  • Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation (2020) in the category ‘Distinguished Innovative Studies and Modern Technology’

Research Interests Keywords

Root system architecture Root development Pattern formation Gene regulatory networks Live imaging Cell biology Adaptation to desert conditions