ד"ר דמיטרי סוקולוב

Dmitry Sokoloff is a biologist with scientific experiences broadly covering various branches of plant science related to plant taxonomy, phylogeny, evolution, morphology, anatomy, development, geography, ecology, polyploidy, paleobotany, the history of botany, and historical botanical collections. His taxon-focused studies covered members of 24 angiosperm orders (APG IV). Special attention was paid to the primarily Australian basal angiosperm family Hydatellaceae (formerly classified in monocots).

In particular, cotyledon types unique among angiosperms were discovered in Hydatellaceae. A number of new ideas have been proposed, for example on the evolution of female reproductive organs, archegonia, across land plants (Sokoloff and Remizowa, 2021), on the origin of seed plant cotyledons (Sokoloff et al., 2015), on the early evolution of the angiosperm gynoecium (Sokoloff et al., 2022), and on the origin of the alternation of generations in the life cycle of land plants (Renner and Sokoloff, 2024).

 

Dmitry Sokoloff has experience of fieldwork in Russia, Australia, Cyprus, India, Japan, South Africa, and Vietnam. He visited several international scientific centres, including the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK (11 visits, to collaborate with Paula Rudall), the University of Zurich (to collaborate with Peter Endress), the University Paris Saclay (three visits, to collaborate with Sophie Nadot), the University of Western Australia, and the Western Australian Herbarium (to collaborate with Graeme Sandral and Terry Macfarlane). Dmitry Sokoloff has extensive experience teaching botany and supervising students at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia (over 25 years).

He was also delivering lectures or lecture courses at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India; the University of Zagreb, Croatia; Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, China; Mirzo Ulugbek National University of Uzbekistan; Nizami Tashkent State Pedagogical University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and the University Paris Saclay, France.

 

EDUCATION:

 

2004 D.Sc.; Botany; Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
 

1998 Ph.D.; Botany; Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
 

1995 M.Sc.; Botany; Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.

 

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:

 

2024- School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Tel Aviv University, Israel, Senior Research Associate
 

2015-2024 Higher Plants Department, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, Head of Department
 

2005-2015 Higher Plants Department, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, full professor
 

1998-2005 Higher Plants Department, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, assistant professor

 

 

Dmitry Sokoloff is especially interested in developmental and evolutionary morphology, correlations between morphological and molecular evolution, and the problem of cryptic species. His research questions are related to plant diversity at various scales, from general patterns across large groups such as land plants or flowering plants (angiosperms) to local patterns in particular plant species. Many problems of plant morphology remain unresolved.

The most remarkable feature of flowering plants is the presence of flowers, but the evolutionary origin of flowers is still enigmatic. In particular, homologies of the female reproductive structures in angiosperm flowers, called carpels, are unknown.

The ongoing research is aimed at filling existing gaps in knowledge on ontogenetic development of reproductive structures of seed plants (angiosperms and gymnosperms) that will contribute to resolving evolutionary problems.

 

Selected Recent Publications (2020-2024)

 

Oskolski A.A., Morris B.B., Severova E.E., Sokoloff D.D. 2024. Flowers from Myanmar amber confirm the Cretaceous age of Rhamnaceae but not of the extant genus Phylica. Nature Plants 10: 219-222.

 

Renner S.S., Sokoloff D.D. 2024. The sexual lability hypothesis for the origin of the land plant generation cycle. Current Biology 34: R697–R707.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Degtjareva G.V., Skaptsov M.V., Vislobokov N.A., Kirejtshuk A.G., Sennikov A.N., Severova E.E., Chepinoga V.V., Samigullin T.H., Valiejo-Roman C.M., Smirnov S.V., Shmakov A.I., Marchuk E.A., Remizowa M.V. 2024. Diploids and tetraploids of Acorus (Acoraceae) in temperate Asia are pseudocryptic species with clear differences in micromorphology, DNA sequences and distribution patterns, but shared pollination biology. Taxon 73: 718–761.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Degtjareva G.V., Valiejo-Roman C.M., Severova E.E., Barinova S., Chepinoga V.V., Kuzmin I.V., Sennikov A.N., Shmakov A.I., Skaptsov M.V., Smirnov S.V., Remizowa M.V. 2024. Kazakhstan has an unexpected diversity of medicinal plants of the genus Acorus (Acoraceae) and could be a cradle of the triploid species A. calamus. Plants 13: e1978.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V., Ronse De Craene L.P., Bachelier J.B., Jabbour F. 2024. Jean-Baptiste Payer (1818–1860), prolific botanist and enlightened French citizen: his legacy in flower development and a need for a new, global compendium. Botany Letters https://doi.org/10.1080/23818107.2024.2373433

 

Remizowa M.V., Shipunov A.B., Sokoloff D.D. 2023. When asymmetry mimics zygomorphy: flower development in Chamaelirium japonicum (Melanthiaceae, Liliales). Botanica Pacifica 12: 3–14

 

Remizowa M.V., Sokoloff D.D. 2023. Patterns of carpel structure, development, and evolution in monocots. Plants 12: e4138.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Malyshkina R.A., Remizowa M.V., Rudall P.J., Fomichev C.I., Fesenko A.N., Fesenko I.N., Logacheva M.D. 2023. Reproductive development of common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) and its wild relatives provides insights into their evolutionary biology. Frontiers in Plant Science 13: e1081981.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V., Nuraliev M.S., Averyanov L.V., Sennikov A.N. 2023. The first genome from the basal monocot family has been misnamed: taxonomic identity of Acorus tatarinowii (Acoraceae), a source of numerous chemical compounds of pharmaceutical importance. Diversity 15: e176.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V., Skaptsov M.V., Yadav S.R., Sennikov A.N. Back to Linnaeus: Proper botanical naming of the tetraploid Indian Acorus (Acoraceae), an important medicinal plant. Diversity 15: e785.

 

Karpunina P.V., Ford K.A., Oskolski A.A., Nuraliev M.S., Sokoloff D.D. 2022. Flower structure and development in Pennantiaceae: uncovering diversity of pseudomonomerous gynoecia in the basal grade of the order Apiales. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 198: 131-164.

 

Koblova S.D., Rudall P.J., Sokoloff D.D., Stevenson D.W., Remizowa M.V. 2022. Flower and spikelet construction in Rapateaceae (Poales). Frontiers in Plant Science 12: e813915.

 

Kramina T.E., Lysova M.V., Samigullin T.H., Özbek M.U., Sokoloff D.D. 2022. When morphology and biogeography approximate nuclear ITS but conflict with plastid phylogeny: phylogeography of the Lotus dorycnium species complex (Leguminosae). Plants 11: e410.

 

Severova E.E., Kopylov-Guskov Y.O., Selezneva Y., Karaseva V., Yadav S.R., Sokoloff D.D. 2022. Pollen production of selected grass species in Russia and India at the levels of anther, flower and inflorescence. Plants 11: e285.

 

Severova E.E., Rudall P.J., Macfarlane T.D., Krasnova E.D., Sokoloff D.D. 2022. Pollen in water of unstable salinity: evolution and function of dynamic apertures in monocot aquatics. American Journal of Botany 109: 500–513.

 

Sokoloff D.D., El E.S., Pechenyuk E.V., Carrive L., Nadot S., Rudall P.J., Remizowa M.V. 2022. Refined interpretation of the pistillate flower in Ceratophyllum sheds fresh light on gynoecium evolution in angiosperms. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 10: e868352.

 

Sokoloff D.D., El E.S., Remizowa M.V. 2022. Shoot development in members of an ancient aquatic angiosperm lineage, Ceratophyllaceae: а new interpretation facilitates comparisons with Chloranthaceae. Symmetry 14: e1288.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Fomichev C.I., Rudall P.J., Macfarlane T.D., Remizowa M.V. 2022. Evolutionary history of the grass gynoecium. Journal of Experimental Botany 73: 4637–4661.

 

Fomichev C.I., Macfarlane T.D., Valiejo-Roman C.M., Samigullin T.H., Degtjareva G.V., Briggs, B.G., Sokoloff D.D. 2021. Two centuries from species discovery to diagnostic characters: molecular and morphological evidence for narrower species limits in the widespread SW Australian Anarthria gracilis complex (Restionaceae s.l./Anarthriaceae, Poales). PeerJ 9: e10935.

 

Klepikova A., Shnayder E.D., Kasianov A., Remizowa M.V., Sokoloff D.D., Penin A.A. 2021. lepidium-like, a naturally occurring mutant of Capsella bursa-pastoris and its implications for the evolution of petal loss in Cruciferae. Frontiers in Plant Science 12: e2590.

 

Kramina T.E., Lysova M.V., Samigullin T.H., Schanzer I.A., Özbek M.U., Sokoloff D.D. 2021. Phylogenetic placement and phylogeography of large-flowered Lotus species (Leguminosae) formerly classified in Dorycnium: Evidence of pre-Pleistocene differentiation of western and eastern intraspecific groups. Plants 10: e260.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Jura-Morawiec J., Zoric L., Fay M.F. 2021. Plant anatomy: at the heart of modern botany. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 195: 249–253.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V. 2021. Diversity, development and evolution of archegonia in land plants. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 195: 380–419.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V. 2021. The use of plant ontologies in comparative and evolutionary studies should be flexible. American Journal of Botany 108: 909–911.
 

Sokoloff D.D., Skaptsov M.V., Vislobokov N.A., Smirnov S.V., Shmakov A.I., Remizowa M.V. 2021. Morphological characterization of diploid and triploid Acorus calamus (Acoraceae) from southern Western Siberia, parthenocarpy in sterile plants and occurrence of aneuploidy. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 195: 189–215.

 

El E.S., Remizowa M.V., Sokoloff D.D. 2020. Developmental flower and rhizome morphology in Nuphar (Nymphaeales): an interplay of chaos and stability. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 8: e303.

 

Macfarlane T.D., Degtjareva G.V., Samigullin T.H., Valiejo-Roman C.M., Fomichev C.I., Sokoloff D.D. 2020. Althenia tzvelevii (Potamogetonaceae), a new species from SW Western Australia with bilocular anthers: morphology and molecular phylogenetic relationships. Phytotaxa 471: 193-207.

 

Nuraliev M.S., Remizowa M.V., Sokoloff D.D. 2020. Flower structure and development in Vietnamese Sciaphila (Triuridaceae: Pandanales): refined knowledge of the morphological misfit family and implications for taxonomy. PeerJ 8: e10205.

 

Severova E.E., Volkova O.A., Demina O.N., Fomichev K.I., Lock I.E., Sokoloff D.D. 2020. Diaperturate pollen in submerged aquatic monocots Althenia orientalis and Althenia filiformis (Potamogetonaceae: Alismatales). Grana 59: 194-202.

 

Severova E.E., Yadav S.R., Sokoloff D.D. 2020. Pollen morphology of Indian Aponogeton (Aponogetonaceae, Alismatales) and the problem of recognizing palynotypes in a taxonomically diverse and ancient genus. Phytotaxa 475: 187-200.

 

Sokoloff D.D., Remizowa M.V., El E.S., Rudall P.J., Bateman R.M. 2020. Supposed Jurassic angiosperms lack pentamery, an important angiosperm-specific feature. New Phytologist 228: 420–426.