Project

Temperature-dependent dynamics of intracellular protein localization using live cell imaging microscopy

Acronym
1511817N
Code
31511817W
Duration
01 January 2017 → 31 December 2019
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Other biological sciences
    • Other natural sciences
Keywords
protein localization
 
Project description

In view of global climate change, understanding the effects of mildly increased temperatures on overall plant growth as well as on their susceptibility to other stresses is of key importance. For example, it is estimated that wheat production would drop by 6% for every 1degree Celcius increase in temperature and elevated temperatures render plants more susceptible to pathogens. While transcriptomic and proteomic changes at altered temperatures (cold and heat) are already being investigated and tools are in place to investigate temperature effects at the whole plant and/or organ level, hardly anything is known on how altered temperature affects protein localization and dynamics in planta and whether altered rates of ligand-bound receptor internalization, known to be important for plant defense responses, contribute to the observed reduction in pathogen resistance under elevated temperatures. At the other side of the spectrum, cold stress will likely also affect plasma membrane dynamics due to altered lipid composition. In order to understand the impact of temperature at the cellular level in plants, it is essential to visualize the changes associated with altered temperature under highly controlled conditions and at high resolution and magnification. This project will investigate the effect of altered temperature on the dynamics of the endocytic TPLATE complex using a recently marketed fast heater-cooler system (CherryTemp) combined with high-resolution microscopy.