Research Interests

Eukaryotic cells display functionally distinct membrane compartments such as ER, Golgi or endosomes that exchange proteins by membrane traffic involving transport vesicles (Fig. 1). In addition to maintaining the functional organisation of the endomembrane system, membrane traffic regulates the concentration of signaling peptides, receptors and transporters at their site of action by delivery along the secretory pathway from the ER, by endocytosis from the plasma membrane and recycling or targeting to the vacuole for degradation.

Our research addresses mechanisms of specificity during vesicle formation and vesicle fusion in specific developmental contexts.

Figure 1 Membrane trafficking pathways in Arabidopsis Key regulators (ARF-GEFs GN, GNL1, BIG1-4) and coat proteins (COPI, COPII, clathrin, retromer) are indicated. ER, endoplasmic reticulum; MVB, multivesicular body; PM, plasma membrane; RE, recycling endosome; TGN, trans-Golgi network.

Principles of vesicle trafficking	Regulation of trafficking pathways by ARF-GEFs and ARFs	Specificity of syntaxin action in membrane fusion