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Plant Biology Home

Phone: (612) 625-1234
Fax: (612) 625-1738

Department of Plant Biology
University of Minnesota
250 Biological Science Center
1445 Gortner Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108

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Anton Sanderfoot

Assistant Professor, Dept of Plant Biology
Ph.D. Department of Microbiology University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign 1996

Cell biological and genetic analysis of vesicle trafficking in Arabidopsis

Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Dr. Anton Sanderfoot
Department of Plant Biology
University of Minnesota
250 Biological Science Center
1445 Gortner Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108

Office: 610 Biological Sciences Center
Phone: (612) 624-1747
Fax: (612) 625-1738
E-mail: sande099@umn.edu

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Lab Home Page
Arabidopsis SNAREs

Research Interests

Functional analysis of SNAREs in the Golgi/endosomal system of Arabidopsis

The secretory system is essential to the proper function of all eukaryotic cells. The majority of the cargo (i.e.: proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, etc.) that is exchanged between the different compartments of the secretory system occurs using transport vesicles that bud from a donor organelle, traverse the cytoplasm and then fuse with a target membrane. As with all
eukaryotes, plants face the difficult task of directing cargo to many different destinations while using a common set of endomembrane compartments. Clearly, a complex and specific vesicle trafficking machinery is required, and one aspect of this machinery is a class of integral membrane proteins called SNAREs. My lab uses the model plant Arabidopsis, a
system with well established cell biological, biochemical and genetic tools that we use to study the functions of SNAREs in the secretory/endocytic pathways. We also use the unicellular plant Chlamydomonas to investigate the evolutionary conservation of the green plant secretory mechanisms.

Using cell biological approaches, we examine the intracellular localization of various SNARE proteins. Using biochemical fractionations and immunoprecipitations, we examine the composition of the SNARE complexes. Using both forward and reverse genetics, we also examine the cytological and developmental consequences of losing individual SNAREs. Our work has recently focused on particular SNARE complexes involved in cell plate formation, as well as a role for these complexes in polarized secretion in non-dividing cells. Each of which is an essential activity for the growth and development of plants.

Selected Publications

Anton A. Sanderfoot and Natasha V. Raikhel (2002).The secretory system of Arabidopsis. The Arabidopsis Book, eds. C.R. Somerville and E.M. Meyerowitz, American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD, DOI 10.1199/tab.0098

Haiyan Zheng, Sebastian Y. Bednarek, Anton A. Sanderfoot, Jose Alonso, Joseph R. Ecker, and Natasha V. Raikhel (2002). NPSN11 is a cell plate associated SNARE protein that interacts with the syntaxin KNOLLE. Plant Physiol. First published on May 2, 2002; DOI 10.1104/pp.003970

Anton A. Sanderfoot, Valentina Kovaleva, Diane C. Bassham, and Natasha V. Raikhel (2001). Interactions between syntaxins identify at least five SNARE complexes within the Golgi/prevacuolar system of the Arabidopsis cell. Mol. Biol. Cell. 12:3733-3743.

Anton A. Sanderfoot, Marsha Pilgrim, Luc Adam, and Natasha V. Raikhel (2001). Disruption of individual members of Arabidopsis syntaxin gene families indicates each have essential functions. Plant Cell. 13:659-666.

Anton A. Sanderfoot, Farhah F. Assaad, and Natasha V. Raikhel (2000). The Arabidopsis Genome: An abundance of SNAREs. Plant Physiol. 124:1558-1569.

Diane C. Bassham, Anton A. Sanderfoot, Valentina Kovaleva, Haiyan Zheng, and Natasha V. Raikhel (2000). AtVPS45 Complex Formation at the TGN. Mol Biol Cell. 11:2251-2265