DynaMo Seminar: Chris Hawes

DynaMo Semiars are a series of public seminars hosted by DynaMo Center. We are pleased to announce our next seminar speaker:

Chris Hawes

Oxford Brookes University
New member of DynaMo Center Scientific Advisory Board

Role of the Endoplasmic Reticulum and Reticulons in the Development of the Cell Plate and Plasmodesmata

Members of reticulon family of proteins are located on the tubular endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and are thought to be responsible for inducing curvature of the ER membrane. Three members of the arabidopsis reticulon family were found in the plasmodesmata proteome.  Here I will describe evidence suggesting that reticulons are responsible for the formation of the desmotubule of plasmodesmata during cell plate formation and that plasmodesmata may act as specialised ER/plasma membrane contact sites.

Chris Hawes is Professor of Plant Cell Biology, Research Lead and Head of Doctoral Training Programme at Oxford Brookes University. He leads a Plant Cell Biology research group which has an international reputation for its work on plant bioimaging and the functions of the plant secretory pathway. His specialist interest is the study of the flow of membrane and transport of proteins within the endomembrane system in plant cells, currently working on the structure of the cortical ER, ER and Golgi dynamics and the Golgi matrix using confocal microscopy, laser tweezers, FRET/FLIM, TEM and serial block-face SEM. Chris is currently Hon. Secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society and helps edit several journals including Traffic, J.Exp. Bot., J. Microscopy and Journal of Integrative Plant Biology.