[Seminars] PSB event reminder

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Calendar Name: seminars
Scheduled for: Thursday, March 17 2011, 11:00 - 12:30
Event text:    Dr John Runions
	       
	       Oxford Brookes University
	       School of Life Sciences
	       
	       Oxford
	       UK
Details:       "Plant cell membrane protein dynamics"
	       
	       ABSTRACT
	       Cell membrane proteins play a key role in the ability of
	       plants to sense and respond to their environments. We
	       have been utilizing live-cell imaging techniques to
	       study protein interactions within and across the plasma
	       membrane. A clue to the way in which membrane proteins
	       associate with each other is in the way in which they
	       diffuse within the plasma membrane. Using
	       photoactivation and photobleaching of fluorescent
	       proteins, we have been able to determine that different
	       types of proteins have differing mobility and we are now
	       working to determine how protein conformation and
	       insertion into membranes govern mobility
	       characteristics. I will illustrate the technique that we
	       have developed by describing three recent case studies. 
	       Plants regulate plasma membrane viscosity by altering
	       their fatty acid composition in response to temperature
	       fluctuations.  We have determined, however, by examining
	       diffusion of the membrane marker LTI6b-GFP that these
	       alterations maintain homeostasis of membrane viscosity.
	       Secondly, the plasma membrane protein formin1 is an
	       actin cytoskeleton regulatory protein that remains
	       relatively immobile and we have determined that it is
	       anchored through association with the cell wall.  This
	       is the first report of a protein bridging between the
	       cytoskeleton and the cell wall.	Finally, a new study
	       with colleagues at VIB, Gent has revealed that lateral
	       mobility of PIN proteins and ultimately their
	       asymmetrical distribution in polarized cells is
	       controlled by interactions with the extracellular
	       matrix.
	       
	       These findings should be of general interest to
	       physiologists, cell biologists and developmental
	       biologists alike. Understanding the mechanisms of
	       protein associations at the cell membrane will be key to
	       new discoveries in these fields.

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