Scientific Exchange for Marchantia polymorpha

The liverworts are among the most primitive plant forms, and provide new opportunities for studies of plant biology. Their small size, rapid growth, simple genetic architectures and easy transformability make them promising new models systems for developmental and synthetic biology.

This site provides a forum for scientific exchange about the liverwort species Marchantia polymorpha, with a library of relevant PDFs and links to interested laboratories. It is for use by scientists, students and naturalists. In order to post messages, or to download materials, you must be registered on the site. To limit spam, we ask that you provide your contact details on registration.

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Splash cup and gemmae on Marchantia polymorpha (photo: Jim Haseloff, Cambridge)

Latest exchanges

Marchantia Exchange rules
Frequently asked questions
Welcome to the Marchantia Exchange. This site is intended to promote the exchange of technical and scientific information for the development of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha as a simple model plant for scientific studies. We encourage participation - posting new information related to work with Marchantia, comments about existing posts, and off-line suggestions. 1. You will need to be regi...
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Simple Jiffy pot culture techniques for Marchantia
Culture and growth
In a separate post, I have provided some details of a low-cost growth chamber with computer-controlled LED lighting system to allow vigorous vegetative growth, and the very efficient induction of gametogenesis and spore formation - to provide a simple "Spore Farm" for Marchantia. In this post, I'll outline the way I have been preparing the media, containing and propagating the plants. &n...
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Spore Farm for Marchantia
Culture and growth
One of the major benefits of working with Marchantia is the potential for working with single-cell spores, which allow high throughput genetic crosses, culture, transformation and mutant screening. Marchantia is very compact and easy to grow - it is well suited for use by scientists and DIY-Bio’ers who would like to make their first move into plant systems. However, a far-red light trigger is requ...
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