WUR Starter Grant for de Keijzer en Romanwski

WUR Starter Grant for de Keijzer en Romanwski

Jeroen de Keijzer and Andres Romanwski have obtained a WUR starter Grant to develop the project: Environmental modulation of protein mobility in land plants.

Short summary:
Much like commuters between cities, proteins can move from one cell to another. One way in which intercellular ‘commuting’ is achieved is through cytoplasmic bridges called plasmodesmata (PD). PD span cell walls, effectively creating a link between the cytoplasm of two adjacent cells. How this dynamic process is affected by environmental factors is still largely unexplored. In this joint project between the Romanowski and the De Keijzer groups, we want to understand how environmental factors, particularly neighbouring shade signals, can affect cell-to-cell protein mobility.

The research is embedded within the Plant Developmental Biology Cluster, which links the Molecular Biology (MOB) and Cell and Developmental Biology (CBD) chair groups, led by Prof. Ronald Pierik and Prof. Viola Willemsen, respectively. The PhD candidate will be working at the ‘Romanowski (TimES lab)’ and the ‘de Keijzer’ groups, led by Dr Andres Romanowski and Jeroen De Keijzer, respectively. They will be co-supervised by Prof. Pierik, Dr Romanowski, Prof. Willemsen and Dr de Keijzer.