Matthias Lange  PhD
	University of Bremen Evolutionary Developmental Genetics Group Leobener Str., UFT 28359 Bremen Germany
	Tel.: +49 421 218 63438 Fax: +49 421 218 3240
	e-mail: matlan@uni-bremen.de

The focus of my thesis deals with comparative and functional analysis of carpel developmental genes in the California poppy Eschscholzia californica. I am interested in the structure of promotors regulating these genes. Each promotor region is located several kb upstream of the transcription initiation site and contains regulatory motifs that were targeted by transcription factors. The different binding motifs in promotors are often conserved for transcription factor families, but the ensemble of different motifs in a promotor has possibly undergone diversification in the course of the angiosperm flower evolution.
Additionally, I establish sibling lines of carpel mutants via cross experiments to further discover unknown genes involves in carpel development in E. californica. The mutant plants were generated by exposing seeds with Fast Neutron irradiation leading to DNA deletions of variable size.