Green Cell Wall Dynamics Lab

Based at Umeå Plant Science Centre (Sweden), we study how plants and algae monitor and maintain the integrity of their cell walls.

Our question

Plant and algal cells are enclosed by a cell wall that must be strong enough to withstand turgor pressure, yet able to yield during growth and to be repaired after damage. We study how cells monitor the state of this wall, how that information is transmitted, and how it is integrated into growth, development, and responses to stress. We treat cell wall homeostasis as a continuously regulated system, and we ask how wall-derived signals are encoded, transmitted, and decoded.

To address these questions, we combine genetics, biochemistry, and molecular and cell biology with biophysics, working mainly in Arabidopsis thaliana, with complementary work in green algae. Across our projects, we perturb cell walls in controlled ways, follow the resulting changes in wall composition, mechanics, and signalling with imaging methods that span molecular to tissue scales, and integrate these data to understand how chemical and mechanical signals are combined.

Research Focus

We study how cell wall integrity is regulated over time and how it responds to changes in the environment, with the aim of understanding how plants coordinate growth and development, and of applying this knowledge to questions in agriculture and the environment. Our research addresses four themes.

Cell wall composition and mechanics. How cell wall composition changes during development and in response to the environment, and how these changes alter the mechanical properties of the wall.
Defining cell wall integrity. What cell wall integrity means in practice: which features of the wall are monitored, and how homeostasis is maintained during growth, adaptation, and stress.
Environmental stress and cell wall homeostasis. How abiotic and biotic stresses, such as cold and pathogen attack, disturb cell wall homeostasis and how cells respond.
From cell wall signals to development. How information about wall composition and mechanics is integrated into developmental processes such as cell cycle progression.

Current Research Projects

Our current projects span fundamental biology, development of tools to follow cell wall dynamics in real time, and applied crop research. Select a project to learn more.

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