George Coupland

George Coupland is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, leading the Department of Plant Developmental Biology. His research focuses on the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying plant reproductive development and perennial life history evolution, primarily in Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabis alpina. Key areas include floral induction networks, environmental signaling integration, and perennial adaptation genomics.

• 2025: FD/FDP bZIP interactions in florigen signaling
• 2024: Meristem shape-identity coupling
• 2023: Urban adaptation in A. thaliana

His work combines genetic mapping, confocal imaging, and CRISPR-based functional analysis to dissect regulatory pathways. Articles highlight miRNA dynamics, transcription factor networks, and dormancy-flowering tradeoffs. Collaborations span Andrea Fulgione (population genetics) and Pau Formosa-Jordan (multicellular modeling).

Scientific contributions include

• 2025: FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society)
• 2021: PLoS Biology publication on miR172 family

ResearchGate profiles show over 384 publications and 103,041 reads, emphasizing his leadership in plant developmental biology. The A. alpina model system development enables comparative studies of annual-perennial divergence.