English Seminars
Cytomechanics: Micro- and Nanotechnological Approaches to Understand Pollen Tube Growth
| Title | Cytomechanics: Micro- and Nanotechnological Approaches to Understand Pollen Tube Growth |
| Lecturer | Dr.Ueli Grossniklaus（Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zürich） |
| Language | English |
| Date&Time | 06/02/2015 (Tue) 15：00～ |
| Venue | 大セミナー室 |
| Detail | The size, shape and stability of a plant depend on the flexibility and integrity of its cell walls, which at the same time need to allow cell expansion for growth while maintaining mechanical stability. Biomechanical studies largely vanished from the focus of plant science with the rapid progress of genetics and molecular biology since the mid-twentieth century. However, the development of more sensitive measurement tools renewed the interest in plant biomechanics in recent years, not only to understand the fundamental concepts of growth and morphogenesis, but also with regard to economically important areas in agriculture, forestry, and the paper industry. Recent advances have clearly demonstrated that mechanical forces play a crucial role in cell and organ morphogenesis, which ultimately define plant morphology. Over the last years, we have been developing methods that allow the measurement of physical properties of cells, such as the flexibility of their cell walls, turgor pressure, and internal biochemical and biophysical properties, which all play crucial roles in cell growth. Using tip-growing pollen tubes as a model, we have developed a Cellular Force Microscope, which allows exact measurements of physical properties in a living system using MEMS-based force sensors. We are currently developing these methods further, combining them with visual servoing to make real-time measurements, and with lab-on-a-chip approaches to precisely manipulate growing pollen tubes. Through collaboration between biologists, engineers, physicists, and computer scientists, it should thus become possible to model complex cellular behaviors during development |
| Contact | 植物発生シグナル 中島 敬二 (k-nakaji@bs.naist.jp) |