Category: Congrats

Congrats, New Papers

Our paper featured on the cover of JXB

When plants encounter cell wall stress, they must presumably fortify the plant cell wall by synthesizing and secreting additional cell wall components. Our new paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany directly tests this hypothesis using live cell imaging and electron microscopy of plant samples across a range of cell wall stresses. We found that changes to cell wall integrity results in a rebalancing of the endomembrane system to promote secretion over endocytic trafficking. This work was led by recent McFarLab PhD awardee Natalie Hoffmann, with important contributions by MSc student Eskandar Mohammad, and is now featured on the cover of the JXB Special Issue on Exocytosis.

Free access is temporarily provided by the journal via this link.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae195

Congrats

Natalie defends her PhD thesis

Natalie Hoffmann successfully defended her PhD thesis today! Natalie was one of the first PhD students to join the McFarLab. Natalie’s thesis investigated the interplay between the endomembrane system and changes to the plant cell wall. She made several exciting discoveries about how changes to cell wall synthesis can affect the endomembrane system; watch this space for more details about her work soon, since she has multiple first-author publications under review.

Congrats

Wen earns her PhD

Hsiang-Wen Chen has been awarded her PhD at the University of Melbourne today! Wen was cosupervised by Heather, Prof. Staffan Person, and Dr. Allison van de Meene. Wen’s thesis work investigated the molecular mechanisms that regulate plant growth and development by studying a protein called CMU1. She characterized a series of protein-protein interactions that regulate the cytoskeleton and plant cell wall synthesis and proposed an exciting model about how these proteins work together to regulate plant cell shape.

Congratulations Wen!

Congrats

Congratulations recent graduates

Several McFarLab undergraduates have convocated today, including Eskandar, Evan, Rylan, and Terrence. Congratulations everyone and best wishes for your next steps.

As a volunteer, and CSB498 student, Rylan screened plants for defects in plant cell wall signaling. He will join Adam Mott’s lab at UofT Scarborough in the fall to begin his MSc.

As a work-study student, then a CSB498 student, Eskandar examined how changes in pectin status are related to plant growth and development. Eski will join the McFarLab in September as an MSc candidate.

As a CSB498 student, Evan examined the crosstalk between cell wall signaling and hormone signaling using a combination of plant growth assays and live cell imaging.  Evan will continue in the McFarLab over the summer as a CSB499 student, then he will join the University of New Brunswick for his MSc.

Congratulations everyone and best wishes for your future work!