Plant Cell Biology

BIOGRAPHY

CURRENT POSITION:
Senior Scientist, Group Leader, Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Plant cells are surrounded by a cell wall which is at the same time sufficiently strong to resist the osmotic pressure of the protoplast and sufficiently plastic to allow cell growth to occur. Cell walls are composed essentially of a complex network of polysaccharides. Besides a fundamental role in plant growth and development and the interaction with the abiotic and biotic environment, cell wall polysaccharides have an immense economic importance since they contribute to the mechanical and textural properties of food and feed as well as the digestibility and the nutritional value of these products. In addition, mechanical properties of wood, paper and textile fibres are in part determined by the composition and architecture of cell walls. Finally, cell walls are an increasingly important source of renewable energy. Despite their importance, very little is known about how the polysaccharides are synthesized, transported and assembled in cell walls. In order to improve our understanding of the processes that govern the synthesis and assembly of cell walls we combine molecular-genetic approaches with biochemistry and cell biology on the model species Arabidopsis thaliana.