Dissection of Subcellular Responses and Interactions in Plants

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All living organisms respond to environmental cues and employ a variety of sub-cellular strategies for maximizing their chances of survival. Plants, despite their sedentary nature have been especially successful in combating the myriad stresses surrounding them. Plant cells, therefore, have been the research material of choice for my lab where we strive to understand their subtle stratagems for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Research into my long-term goal of understanding the responsiveness of the plant cell was initiated through my first Discovery grant in 2005 and has extended seamlessly into the second grant period with considerable benefit from a Discovery accelerated supplement. During the past grant periods my live-imaging based approach has resulted in a wide variety of basic tools using conventional and photo-convertible fluorescent proteins. The lab has also developed several pioneering techniques for precise targeting and tracking of sub-cellular components and compartments. Most important, keeping our long-term goal in mind, is our discovery and initial characterization of novel sub-cellular phenomenon involving rapid membrane extensions from different organelles (Sinclair et al., 2009; Mathur et al., 2013; Schattat et al. 2012). The transient phenomena reported by us appear to be common to all eukaryotes and are very often involved in bringing a stressed cell back to equilibrium quickly as well as allowing it to be better prepared for dealing with recurrent stress. This proposal builds up on my foundational work of the last 10 years and is aimed at uncovering more details about the basic subcellular phenomena identified so far. The four key and complementary areas of exploration defined by me for investigation under the present proposal are: (1). Understanding the mechanisms involved in the formation of organelle extensions. (2). Understanding the role of organelle extensions in inter-organelle trafficking. (3). Understanding the role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as a physical regulator of organelle shape and interactivity.(4). Understanding the fundamentals of endomembrane-cytoskeletal interactions.