I am a developmental biologist – I study how long-distance signals (hormones) modulate plant development from the cellular to the organismal level.
I joined the Jones group at SLCU in November 2021; my postdoc project aims at engineering a new generation of auxin biosensors based on FRET technology, which once applied in vivo will serve for a better understanding of auxin dynamics at the cellular and sub-cellular level; and open new horizons to investigate how auxin “gradients” fine-tune auxin outputs on plant physiology and development.
Education and research:
ongoing: Postdoc at Sainsbury Laboratory University Cambridge, UK
2017 - 2022: PhD in plant and molecular biology (awarded with exceptional distinction of Research excellence) - University of Leeds, UK
2015 - 2017: MSc in Plant Biology and Biotechnology (honours) - University of Bordeaux, France
2014 - 2015: BSc in Biology and Ecology (honours) - University of Bordeaux, France
2012 - 2014: BSc in Biological and Agronomical Sciences (honours) - University of Bordeaux, France
Monday session 3
Detecting cellular auxin dynamics in living plants – microbial auxin sensors domains break the ice
Maxime JOSSE, K. SHETTY, M. BALCEROWICZ, B. LARSEN, J. DANGL, M. REDINBO, M. ESTELLE, A. M. JONES*
The auxin research
field is highly advanced with functional models of cellular dynamics of IAA
impacting nearly all aspects of plant physiology and development. However,
these are largely based on either destructive, lower-resolution direct
measurements (e.g. GC-MS) or indirect measurements in vivo (e.g. DR5,
DII-Venus). Hence, our goal is to engineer direct biosensors for auxin based on
FRET (Förster Resonance Energy Transfer), analogous to other ratiometric
biosensors for plant hormones. We engineered IAA Genetically-encoded Optical
FRET biosensors (IAAGO1/IAAGO2), to track auxin dynamics directly, in
real-time and with subcellular resolution in a minimally invasive manner.
IAAGO1 is derived from a prokaryotic biosensor protein and had IAA affinity of
~1.5µM, that we later optimised to a present version with higher affinity
(KdIAA ~400nM). IAAGO1 responds to auxin with high signal-to-noise ratio in E.
coli, yeast, in planta and in vitro. IAAGO2 is derived from an
initial biosensor protein that we engineered for very high affinity (KdIAA
~10nM) for auxin, comparable to auxin physiological range. Already IAAGO2s have revealed novel auxin dynamics in the
cell nuclei of growing Arabidopsis organs and ongoing optimisation
efforts will establish IAAGO2 utility for illuminating the many biological
phenomena where cellular auxin dynamics are thought to be determinative.
(this talk will not be recorded or available on demand)