Pratibha Kumari

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4915175380699

Martin Luther university, Halle (Saale), Germany

Leibniz institute for plant biochemistry, Germany

15th December, 2014 to untill now

IIQD proteins: Novel players in cell wall positioning during cytokinesis

We are working on IQ-67 domain (IQD) protein family which is one of the largest known family of calmodulin (CaM) binding proteins (CBPs) in plants and possess 33 members in Arabidopsis thaliana. CaM/CMLs transduce Ca2+ signals via interaction with target proteins. The IQD family is characterized by the presence of a conserved 67 amino acid spanning domain, named IQ67 domain (Abel et al 2005). Each domain contains up to 4 copies of CaM binding motifs. The Domain is required and sufficient for mediating CaM binding (Bürstenbinder et al. 2013). Analysis of GFP fusion of 33 IQD proteins revealed that most IQDs are associated with microtubules (MTs) and the plasma membrane and often are localized in the nucleus (Bürstenbinder et al. 2017). Additionally, from the previous study conducted in our group, we know that IQD proteins assemble CaM to distinct subcellular sites. This observation suggests a role of IQD proteins in linking Ca2+-CaM signaling to specific subcellular sites, the precise mechanism, however, is unknown. We used reverse genetic approach to elucidate biological functions of IQD proteins and molecular mechanism of IQD action. At the cellular level, we observed that the mutant line displayed cell wall positioning defects in the meristem when compared to WT. Phenotype together with expression data of IQDs suggests function of IQDs in cell division. Our interaction study showed molecular as well as genetic interaction of IQDs with the critical components of call wall positioning. Collectively our data suggest the role of IQDs in the integration of Ca2+ -CaM signaling to the regulation of division plane selection.

Mitra, D., Kumari P., Quegwer J., Klemm S., Möller B., Poeschl Y., Pflug P., Stamm G., Abel, S., Bürstenbinder K. (2018) Microtubule-associated protein IQ67 DOMAIN5 regulates interdigitation of leaf pavement cells in Arabidopsis thaliana. BioRxiv, DOI:10.1101/268466.

Attended following conferences/workshops: -PSSC (2015 and 2016), Dabringhausen (2016 and 2018) and Cytoskeleton meeting (2017), image j analysis workshop for microscopic image processing.

Currently working on PhD thesis