WallSign

Heisenberg-Förderung Prof. Sebastian Wolf

01/05/2024 to 30/04/2026

How the development of complex multicellular organisms is accomplished through coordinated cell proliferation, differentiation, and growth is a fundamental biological question. In plants, the relative position of neighbouring cells is fixed as they share a rigid extracellular matrix (ECM), the cell wall. The cell wall is deployed in oriented fashion during cytokinesis and is known to guide morphogenesis through selective restriction of cell expansion. It has recently become clear that plant cells sense cell wall state and integrate this information with other pathways to adjust cellular behaviour. Thus, the physical and chemical properties of the cell wall are assumed to be under constant surveillance by cell surface receptors, which are directly connected to intracellular signalling. However, very little is known about the mechanisms of cell wall perception, the molecular players in this process, and how cell wall related signals are transduced and integrated into cellular behaviour. Research in my lab is focused on deciphering how signals from the cell wall are perceived and how this cell wall-mediated signalling intersects with the regulatory mechanisms of plant physiology and development. A particular focus of our work rests on the plasma membrane and its multitude of cell surface receptors as the interface between cell wall and the cell interior.