A day in the life of plants: Proteomic insights into plant growth and development

As sessile organisms, plants are incredibly mindful of their time. As a result, they extensively regulate cellular and physiological processes through a combination of circadian (anticipatory) and light‐responsive (reactive) mechanisms in order to adapt to their changing daily environment and to respond to stress. To date, our understanding of diel plant cell regulation has largely been derived from a combination of genetic and transcriptomic analysis; however, advancements in mass spectrometry driven quantitative proteomics offers an exciting new frontier of discovery to better understand the plant cellular environment. 

In this pursuit, we have developed new proteome acquisition workflows that better address the unique high complexity, high dynamic range nature of plant samples, in order to improve our ability to quantify lower abundant proteins of interest (e.g. protein kinases and transcription factors). We are particularly focused on deploying these workflows to define a proteome-centric understanding of how plant diel biology intersects with abiotic stress response in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Learning Objectives

• Learn how plants use circadian and light-responsive mechanisms to regulate their processes in response to daily changes and stress.
• Discover advancements in mass spectrometry-driven proteomics and their impact on understanding the plant cellular environment.
• Learn about new mass spectrometry acquisition workflows that enhance the quantification of low-abundance proteins in plant proteomics
  
  Webinars will be available for unlimited on-demand viewing after live event.

Presenter: Glen Uhrig, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Alberta)

Dr. R. Glen Uhrig is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. Dr. Uhrig’s group is focused on the development of novel quantitative proteomic workflows for plants and the application of mass spectrometry-based proteomics to understand diel plant biology under multiple stress conditions. Dr. Uhrig is also an Alberta Science and Technology award winner (2022) for his groups Application of Technology in Agri-food Production. Dr. Uhrig is a board member of the Canadian National Proteomics Network and the lead of the Plant Cell Atlas Proteomics Committee focused on developing single cell and cell-type applications in plants.