Plant Cell Biology

Osmotically-driven turgor pressure of plant cells can be higher than that of a car tire. It puts tremendous forces onto cell walls and drives changes in cell shape. This has given rise to unique mechanisms to control organ formation in comparison to metazoans. The fascinating interplay between forces and local cellular reorganization is poorly understood. Growth of lateral roots is a prominent example of a developmental process in which mechanical forces between neighboring cells are generated. Lateral roots grow from a single cell layer that resides deep within the primary root. On its way out, lateral roots grow through the overlying endodermal, cortical and epidermal cell layers. We recently demonstrated that endodermal cells actively accommodate lateral root formation. Responses include a dramatic volume loss and a controlled degradation of their lignin-based paracellular diffusion barrier. The lateral root system provides a unique opportunity to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms how mechanical forces and intercellular communication regulate spatial accommodation during plant development.

• Correction: Diffusible repression of cytokinin signalling produces endodermal symmetry and passage cells
  Andersen, Tonni Grube; Naseer, Sadaf; Ursache, Robertas;  Wybouw, Brecht; Smet, Wouter; De Rybel, Bert; Vermeer, Joop EM; Geldner, Niko
  NATURE (2018) DOI: 10.1038/nature25976), NATURE 10.1038/s41586-018-0231-y OCT 2018
• Diffusible repression of cytokinin signalling produces endodermal symmetry and passage cells
  Andersen, Tonni Grube; Naseer, Sadaf; Ursache, Robertas;  Wybouw, Brecht; Smet, Wouter; De Rybel, Bert; Vermeer, Joop EM; Geldner, Niko
  NATURE   Volume: 555   Issue: 7697   Pages: 529-+   10.1038/nature25976 MAR 22 2018
• Breakout - lateral root emergence in Arabidopsis thaliana
  Stoeckle, Dorothee; Thellmann, Martha; Vermeer, Joop E. M.
  CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY   Volume: 41   Pages: 67-72   Published: FEB 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2017.09.005
• Green light for quantitative live-cell imaging in plants 
  Grossmann, Guido; Krebs, Melanie; Maizel, Alexis; et al. 
  JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE, 131 (2): JAN 2018 Review (Details)
• Perturbing phosphoinositide homeostasis oppositely affects vascular differentiation in Arabidopsis thaliana roots 
  Gujas, Bojan; Cruz, Tiago M. D.; Kastanaki, Elizabeth; et al. 
  DEVELOPMENT, 144 (19): 3578-3589 OCT 1 2017 Article (Details)
• In Vivo Imaging of Diacylglycerol at the Cytoplasmic Leaflet of Plant Membranes 
  Vermeer, Joop E. M.; van Wijk, Ringo; Goedhart, Joachim; et al. 
  PLANT AND CELL PHYSIOLOGY, 58 (7): 1196-1207, https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcx012 JUL 2017
• Polarly localized kinase SGN1 is required for Casparian strip integrity and positioning 
  Alassimone, Julien; Fujita, Satoshi; Doblas, Veronica G.; et al. 
  NATURE PLANTS, 2 (8): AUG 2016 , Article (Details)
• Targeted cell elimination reveals an auxin-guided biphasic mode of lateral root initiation 
  Marhavy, Peter; Montesinos, Juan Carlos; Abuzeineh, Anas; et al. 
  GENES & DEVELOPMENT, 30 (4): 471-483 FEB 15 2016 Article (Details) 

• Lateral root development
• Cell volume regulation
• Mechanosensing
• Development
• Cell biology

• Arabidopsis functional genomics
• Live cell imaging
• Computational morphodynamics
• Greengate cloning