Plant Cell Biology

植物细胞壁为我们提供食物、衣服、住所和可再生能源。然而，最初试图修改细胞壁以改善农业或生物材料的尝试未能达到预期，并暴露了我们知识中的一个关键空白：植物具有感知细胞壁状态的机制，并且当细胞壁失去平衡时通常会限制它们的生长。McFarlane博士的研究旨在揭示这些基本上未知的细胞壁信号和反应机制。她的工作有可能为细胞壁修饰策略提供信息，这可以推动可持续农业，粮食安全和下一代生物燃料开发的应用。

Plant cell walls provide us with food, clothing, shelter, and renewable energy. However, initial attempts to modify cell walls for improved agriculture or biomaterials have fallen short of expectations and exposed a critical gap in our knowledge: plants have mechanisms to sense the status of the cell wall and often limit their growth when the cell wall is ¿out of balance¿. Dr. McFarlane¿s research aims to uncover these largely unknown cell wall signaling and response mechanisms. Her work has the potential to inform cell wall modification strategies, which can advance applications in sustainable agriculture, food security, and next-generation biofuel development.