Senior Scientist Thermo Fisher Scientific New Market, Maryland
Body of Abstract: Plants provide large and diverse pools of biosynthetic enzymes that facilitate complex reactions. These enzymes are largely used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Having structural information, not only on these enzymes but on the plant’s cellular organization, provides powerful insights into fundamental plant cellular processes.
Although there are many tools for studying plant cell structure and function, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is becoming a fundamental technique for obtaining high-resolution structural information about plant cells and providing a full understanding of essential interactions and mechanisms.
Cryo-EM single particle analysis (SPA) provides structural details of proteins, and cryo tomography (cryo-ET) allows visualization of these proteins in their cellular context. It is even possible to visualize the overall structure of the plant using large-volume analysis (vEM).
In the context of plant biology, these insights can shed light not just on cellular function but also on the interaction of unknown chemical substances of pathogens with the plant, such as viruses and fungi. This information is crucial and can help with plant disease prevention.
We will present several results using cryo-EM SPA and cryo-ET.