Group name: Plant Cell Biology
Location: Wageningen University
Web page:
E-Mail: annemie.emons@wur.nl
Phone: +31 317 484329 (2155
secretary, 4329 fax)
Relevant research
interests:
Towards comprehension of the living system: taking the
cell's infrastructure as a route
At the system level the cell consists of networks of pathways, motifs, and modules with dynamic relationships. One of these networks is the 'Transportome', the infrastructure of the cell consisting of the cytoskeleton of microtubules and actin filaments as its backbone and the cytoskeleton-binding proteins as its regulators. The transportome organises the cell by being the transport highway and is receiver of topological signals. The infrastructure determines when cell processes occur where, an organisational regulation as vital for cells as for human society. My research focuses on the role of the transportome in plant cell division, elongation and cell wall formation. Research in my group and collaboration with (theoretical) physicists are opening up the possibilities to understand physical aspects of cell infrastructure and its regulation by combining in vivo, in vitro and in silico approaches.
Current system biology
activities:
In the systems biology approach all available data about collective properties arising from the properties of the underlying components and their interactions are quantified and used to make mathematical models that can be solved to predict the behaviour of those molecules in various cellular circumstances. The geometrical cell wall model that we have made (Emons 1994, Plant Cell Environment) and worked out together with theoretical physicist professor B.M. Mulder (Emons and Mulder 1998 PNAS, Mulder and Emons 2001 J. Math. Biol.), and applied (Emons et al. 2002, Plant Biology), is one of the first 'System' models in plant cell biology. It addresses the question of cellulose organisation in the cell wall and predicts wall architecture from the number of active cellulose synthases in the plasma membrane.
Relevant collaborations (e.g.):
Representative
publications (possibly links to pdf files):