About me

Hi!

I am currently working as a postdoctoral research assistant in the Plant Cell Biology Group at Oxford Brookes University in the UK and am also acting as outreach coordinator for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. I am working on this website in my free time and views are my own.

I am very passionate about making our research more accessible and interesting for everyone. Therefore I started this weblog to share fascinating and entertaining articles and links about plant cell biology, plants and general science. I am especially keen on collecting engaging and visual resources, such as videos, science songs or interactive websites.

Please feel free to contact me at anne@plantcellbiology.com for any feedback or suggestions.

My outreach activities

In my role as Faculty Outreach Coordinator I am leading a team organising the Brookes Science Bazaar 2012, a day-long family event with free hands-on science activities. Currently I am establishing collaborations between our faculty and other departments, like the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. I am also working with staff and students on outreach projects such as improving our CSI Biotechnology School Loan Kit Scheme, Brookes@Pegasus or the International Fascination of Plants Day on 18th May.

I have a great interest in online engagement and you can find me on Twitter (@AnneOsterrieder), Google+ and Scoop.it. In our faculty I am training research students in the use of blogs and social media. In collaboration with musicians and other plant cell biologists I am  producing science music videos which can be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/plantendomembrane.

I am very honoured that I been selected to receive the SEB’s President’s Medal 2012 for Education and Public Affairs. The medals will be presented at the SEB Annual Meeting in Salzburg (29th June – 2nd July), where I will also be giving a talk about my outreach activities. Please say hello if you will be there!

Articles

“How should researchers talk about science to the public?” Guardian Higher Education Network, 2012

“Could we improve discussion at scientific conferences?” SEB Bulletin 2011

“Growing Concern: Engaging the public with issues involving GM” Conference Report, Science Communcation Conference 2011

“Shedding light on Plant Cell Biology” Biological Sciences Review, in press.

My research

In my research I am studying the formation and structural maintenance of the plant Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus lies in the centre of the secretory pathway, a complex membrane system conserved in all eukaryotic cells. It is similar to a compartmentalised conveyor belt system in a factory: it processes, distributes and stores a wide range of important proteins such as storage proteins in cereal grains or proteins involved in plant stress responses. In animal cells  Golgi apparatus is organised as a single large ribbon. A plant cell however can have up to hundreds of small mobile Golgi bodies which move along the cytoskeleton over the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Golgi bodies contain enzymes that attach sugars to proteins, they pack and ship protein cargo and lipids and produce material for the cell wall.

In animal cells a family of proteins, the golgins, functions in the regulation of protein transport between the ER and the Golgi. It also acts as a structural scaffold, or Golgi matrix, for Golgi cisternae. I am studying arabidopsis homologues of these proteins to see if they take over similar functions in plants. I am especially interested in proteins that act at the ER-Golgi interface and might anchor Golgi bodies to the ER surface.

To characterise these proteins I am using advanced confocal laser scanning microscopy methods such as fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to study interactions between golgins and small GTPases or optical laser tweezers to pull Golgi bodies away from the ER in living plant cells.

Publications

• Wang P., Hummel E., Osterrieder A., Meyer A. J., Frigerio L., Sparkes I., Hawes C. (2011). KMS1 and KMS2, two plant endoplasmic reticulum proteins involved in the early secretory pathway. Plant J. 66(4):613-28

• Schoberer J., Runions J., Steinkellner H., Strasser R., Hawes C., Osterrieder A. (2010) Sequential depletion and acquisition of proteins during Golgi stack disassembly and reformation. Traffic 11(11):1429-44.

• Sparkes I., Tolley N., Aller I., Svozil J., Osterrieder A., Botchway S., Mueller C., Frigerio L., Hawes C. (2010). Five Arabidopsis reticulon isoforms share endoplasmic reticulum location, topology, and membrane-shaping properties. The Plant Cell 22:1333-1343

• Hummel E., Osterrieder A., Robinson D.G., Hawes C. (2010) Inhibition of Golgi function causes plastid starch accumulation. J. Exp. Bot. 61(10):2603-14.

• Osterrieder, A., Hummel, E., Carvalho, C.M. and Hawes, C. (2010) Golgi membrane dynamics after induction of a dominant-negative mutant Sar1 GTPase in tobacco. J. Exp. Bot. 61:405-422.

• Osterrieder, A., Carvalho, C.M., Latijnhouwers, M., Johansen, J.N., Stubbs, S., Botchway, S. and Hawes, C. (2009) Fluorescence lifetime imaging of interactions between Golgi tethering factors and small GTPases in plants. Traffic 10:1034-1046.

• Jonczyk R., Schmidt H., Osterrieder A., Fiesselmann A., Schullehner K., Haslbeck M., Sicker D., Hofmann D., Yalpani N., Simmons C., Frey M., Gierl A. (2008). Elucidation of the final reactions of DIMBOA-glucoside biosynthesis in maize: characterization of Bx6 and Bx7. Plant Phys. 146(3):1053-63.

Reviews

• Sparkes I.A., Graumann K., Martinière A., Schoberer J., Wang P., Osterrieder A. (2011). Bleach it, switch it, bounce it, pull it: using lasers to reveal plant cell dynamics. J. Exp. Bot. 62(1):1-7.
• Hawes C., Osterrieder A., Sparkes I.A., Ketelaar T. (2010). Optical Tweezers for the micromanipulation of plant cytoplasm and organelles. Curr. Opin. Plant. Biol. 13(6):731-5
• Hawes C., Schoberer J., Hummel E., Osterrieder A. (2010): Biogenesis of the plant Golgi apparatus. Biochem. Soc. Transact. 38(3):761-7.
• Hawes C., Osterrieder A., Hummel E., Sparkes I. (2008). The plant ER-Golgi interface. Traffic 9: 1571-1580.

Book chapters

• Hawes C., Osterrieder A., Sparkes I. (2008). Features of the plant Golgi apparatus. In: Mironov A, Pavelka M, editors. The Golgi Apparatus State of the art 110 years after Camillo Golgi’s discovery. Wien, New York: Springer; p. 611-623.