The goal of this collaborative research effort is to advance a predictive model for regulating stomata opening by manipulating organelle remodeling. Stomata are pores on a leaf surface that regulate gas exchange. Each stoma consists of two guard cells whose movements regulate pore opening and thereby control CO2 fixation, water loss, and, ultimately, plant yield. Guard cell movements depend critically on the dynamic remodeling of their vacuoles, which change morphology from fragmented to fused during stomata opening. Via the framing of a multiscale mathematical model that connects causal biochemical signaling events to morphological dynamics, we are using an integrative systems biology approach to discover the molecular rules governing vacuole remodeling in response to environmental cues.
Publications
Regulation of Vacuole Fusion in Stomata by Dephosphorylation of the HOPS subunit VPS39
Anne-Marie Pullen, Grant Billings, Charles Hodgens, Gisele White, Belinda S. Akpa, Marcela Rojas-Pierce
bioRxiv, Accepted, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2025
Anne-Marie Pullen, Scott Lyons, Angie Mordant, Laura Herring, Belinda S. Akpa, Marcela Rojas-Pierce
bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2025
Model-based inference of a dual role for HOPS in regulating guard cell vacuole fusion
Charles Hodgens, D T Flaherty, Anne-Marie Pullen, Imran Khan, Nolan J English, Lydia Gillan, Marcela Rojas-Pierce, Belinda S Akpa
in silico Plants, 2024 Aug, pp. diae015