Today, we welcome another BSc student, Rylan Vincent, to the McFarlab. Rylan is a 3rd year undergraduate student, double majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology: Focus in Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and he will join Eduardo’s project.
The plant trans-Golgi network acts as a hub for both secretory and endocytic trafficking ad delicate mechanisms are in place to balance trafficking in and out of this organelle, including pH and ion gradients. This collaboration, led by Stefanie Wege’s group at the University of Adelaide, provided compelling evidence that the single isoform of cation chloride cotransporter (CCC1) encoded in Arabidopsis thaliana provides a cation and anion efflux mechanism to regulate pH in the trans-Golgi network/early endosome and has now been published in eLife.
Natalie and Eduardo both presented at the Eastern Regional Meeting of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists today. Natalie was awarded the prize for best talk and Eduardo was awarded the prize for best poster. Congratulations to Eduardo and Natalie for their exciting results and excellent communication!
Update: Natalie & Eduardo’s achievements were also featured on the CSB homepage.
Most members of the McFarLab will be attending the Eastern Regional Meeting of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists on Saturday, an online meeting hosted by Carleton University. Natalie will present a talk about her research and Eduardo will present a poster about his research.
Jana Verbančič successfully defended her PhD thesis today! Jana was part of the MelPoPP program, a joint PhD program between the University of Melbourne and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and the University of Potsdam. She was cosupervised by Heather and Staffan Persson at Uni Melb and Mark Stitt and John Lunn at the MPI/Uni Potsdam. Jana’s thesis investigated the diel regulation of cell wall synthesis using a combination of live cell imaging and metabolic analyses of labelled CO2 incorporation. She made exciting discoveries regarding the regulation of cell wall synthesis via carbon availability. Congratulations Jana!
Live cell imaging is an invaluable tool for understanding how cells grow, develop, and respond to stimuli. By tracking the movement of fluorescently-tagged cellulose synthase enzymes using live cell imaging, the McFarLab is able to track cell wall synthesis enzyme activity in real time in living cells.
Jana & Jenny’s paper describes a protocol for preparing samples, imaging fluorescently-tagged cellulose synthase (CESA) enzymes in live plant cells, image processing, and data analysis and has now been published in the new Cell Press journal, STAR Protocols.
This week, Hongyu (Vicky) Zhu joins the lab as an undergraduate work-study student. She will help us keep the lab in good working order, so we’re excited to have her as part of the McFarLab team!
This week, the McFarLab welcomes new undergraduate students to the lab for the fall & winter terms. Carlos Wang will continue volunteering virtually and working on his meta-analysis project, Lella Erceg joins the lab as a volunteer and will work with Raegan on developing and evaluating real-time sensors of cell wall signalling. Rowan Brookman will continue his summer NSERC-USRA project as a CSB498 student.
Yu has been awarded a prestigious Chinese Scholarship Council PhD Scholarship to fund his PhD studies in the McFarLab.
Two new grad students join the lab today: Jenny and Yu. Jenny Huang recently completed her BSc in Pharmacology & Toxicology at U of T and has re-joined the McFarLab as an MSc student. Jenny will study cell wall glycoproteins.
Yu Zhu comes to us after completing his BSc at China Agricultural University and an MSc at Fudan University in China and joins the McFarLab as a PhD student. Yu project will focus on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of cell wall signaling.