Faculty Profile

Fields of Study

Plant Biology

Areas of Focus

Cell Biology
Development
Plant Molecular Biology

Research Interest

Research is aimed at understanding the cellular machinery involved in proper deposition of plant cell wall components.

About Erik Nielsen

Polarized secretion is an essential process during the differentiation of different cell types and tissues in multicellular organisms. In plants, cells are surrounded by a rigid cell wall, which restricts changes in cell shape and size; therefore polarized secretion of cell wall components takes on a particular importance during plant growth and development. In recent years, significant advances have been made in discovering and characterizing proteins required for specific membrane trafficking steps along the secretory pathways of yeast, plants and animals. However, despite these advances little is known of the membrane trafficking pathways responsible for polarized secretion in plants.

1998-2001 Postdoc EMBL Heidelberg, Germany.
1997 Ph.D. Plant Research Lab at Michigan State University.
View Dr. Nielsen's CV.

Publications

Kang, B-Y†, Nielsen, E.†, Preuss, M., Mastronarde, D., and Staehelin, L.A. (2011). "Electron tomography of RabA4b and PI-4Kb1 labeled trans-Golgi network compartments in Arabidopsis." Traffic 12, 313-29. (†co-first and co-corresponding author).

Munnik, T., and Nielsen, E. (2011). "Green light for polyphosphoinositide signals in plants." Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. in press.

Park, S., Szumlanski, A.L., Gu, F., Guo, F., and Nielsen, E. (2011). "A role for CSLD3 during cell wall synthesis in apical plasma membranes of tip-growing root hair cells." Nature Cell Biol. 13, 973-80.

Szumlanski, A., and Nielsen, E. (2009). "The Arabidopsis thaliana Rab GTPase, RabA4d, is required for the regulation of pollen tube tip growth." Plant Cell 21, 526-544.

Vermeer, J.E.M., Thole, J.M., Goedhart, J., Nielsen, E., Munnik, T., and Gadella Jr., T.W.J. (2009). " Imaging phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate dynamics in living plant cells." Plant J. 57, 356-372.

Nielsen, E. (2008). " Plant cell wall biogenesis during tip-growth in root hair cells." In Emons, A.M., Ketelaar, T., (eds.) Root Hair Book, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag pp. 85-102.

Hwang, J-U., Vernoud, V., Szumlanski, A., Nielsen, E., and Yang, Z. (2008). " A tip-localized Rho GTPase activating protein controls cell polarity by globally inhibiting Rho GTPase at the cell apex." Curr. Biol. 18, 1907-1916.

Thole, J.M., and Nielsen, E. (2008). " The emerging roles of phosphoinositides in plant membrane trafficking." Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 11, 620-631.

Nielsen E., A.Y. Cheung, and Ueda, T. (2008). " The Regulatory RAB and ARF GTPases for Vesicular Trafficking." Plant Physiol. 147, 1516-26.

Swarup, K., Swarup, R., Benkova, E., Casimiro, I., Péret. B., Yang, Y., Carrier, D., Nielsen, E., De Smet, I., Vaneste, S., Parry, G., James, N., Calvo, V., Ljung, K., Kramer, E.M., Graham, N., Marillonnet, S., Patel, K., Jones, J.D.G., Taylor, C.G., Schachtman, D.P., May, S.T., Sandberg, G., Friml, J., Kerr, I., Beeckman, T., Laplaze, L. and Bennett, M.J. (2008). " The auxin influx carrier LAX3 facilitates lateral root emergence in Arabidopsis.." Nature Cell Biol. 10, 946-954.

Nielsen, E. (2008). " Investigating lipid signaling:  It's all about finding the right PI." Biochem. J. 413, 5-6.

Lee, Y-J., Szumlanski, A., Nielsen, E., and Yang, Z. (2008). "Rho-GTPase-dependent F-actin dynamics coordinate vesicle targeting and exocytosis during tip growth." J. Cell Biol. 181, 1155-68.

Thole, J.M., Vermeer, J.E.M, Zhang, Y., Gadella Jr., T.W.J., and Nielsen, E. (2008). "RHD4 encodes a Sac1p-like PI(4)P phosphatase involved in root hair development." Plant Cell 20, 381-395.

Allen, A., Snyder, A.K., Preuss, M., Nielsen, E.E., Shah, D.M., and Smith, T.J. (2008). "Plant defensins and virally encoded fungal toxin KP4 inhibit plant root growth." Planta 227, 331-339.

Einset, J., Nielsen, E., Conolly, E.L., Bones, A., Sparstad, T., Winge, P., and Zhu, J-K. (2008). "Membrane-trafficking of RabA4c involved in the effect of glycine betaine on recovery from chilling stress in Arabidopsis." Physiol. Plant. 130, 511-518.

Jez, J.M., Schachtman, D.P., Berg, R.H., Taylor, C.G., Chen, S., Hicks, L.M., Jaworski J.G., Smith, T.J. Nielsen, E., and Pikaard, C.S. (2007). "Developing a New Interdisciplinary Lab Course for Undergraduate and Graduate Students: Plant Cells and Proteins." Biochem Mol. Biol. Education In Press.

Preuss, M.L., Wiedman, P., and Nielsen, E. (2007). "Protein Trafficking: Mechanisms and Regulation." In Nava Segev (ed.) Austin, Texas, USA: Landes Bioscience. In Press.

Haas, T.J., Sliwinski, M.K., Martinez, D.E., Preuss, M., Ebine, K., Ueda, T., Nielsen, E., Odorizzi, G., and Otegui, M.S. (2007). "The Arabidopsis AAA ATPase SKD1 is involved in multivesicular endosome function and interacts with its positive regulator LIP5." Plant Cell 19: 1295-1312.

Hammes, U.Z., Nielsen, E., Honaas, L., Taylor, C.G., and Schachtman, D.P. (2006). "AtCAT6, a sink tissue localized amino acid transporter for essential amino acids in Arabidopsis." Plant J. 48: 414-426. Read Publication.

Yang, Y., Hammes, U.Z., Taylor, C.G., Schachtman, D.P., and Nielsen, E. (2006). "High-Affinity Auxin Transport by the AUX1 Influx Carrier Protein." Curr. Biol. 16: 1123-1127. Read Publication.

Preuss, M., Schmitz, A., Thole, J., Bonner, H., Otegui, M., and Nielsen, E. (2006). "The PI-4K, PI-4Kβ1 is an effector of AtRabA4b and is involved in polarized tip-growth of root hair epidermal cells in Arabidopsis." J. Cell Biol. 172: 991-998.

Hammes, U., Schachtman, D., Berg, R.H., Nielsen, E., Koch, W., McIntyre, L., and Taylor, C. (2005). "Altered expression of Arabidopsis transporter genes in developing nematode-induced giant cells." Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 18: 1247-1257.

Voigt, B., Timmers, A., Šamaj, J., Hlavacka, A., Ueda, T., Preuss, M., Nielsen, E., Mathur, J., Emans, M., Stenmark, H., Nakano, A., Baluška, F., and Menzel, D. (2005). "Actin-propelled endosomes accumulate at sites of actin-driven polar growth of root hairs." Eur. J. Cell Biol. 84: 609-621.

E. Nielsen (2005). "Rab GTPases in Plant Endocytosis." In Šamaj, J., Baluška, F., and Menzel, D., (eds.) Plant Endocytosis, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, pp. 177-196.

*Preuss, M., Santos-Serna, J., Falbel, T.G., Bednarek, S.Y., and Nielsen, E. (2004). "The Arabidopsis Rab GTPase, AtRabA4b, Localizes to the Tips of Growing Root Hair Cells." Plant Cell 16: 1589-1603. *This manuscript was featured on the cover of The Plant Cell, 16(6), June 2004 issue. Read Publication.

Vernoud, V., Horton, A.C., Yang, Z., and Nielsen, E. (2002). "Analysis of the Small GTPase Gene Family of Arabidopsis thaliana." Plant Physiol. 131: 1191-1208. Read Publication.

Nielsen, E., Severin, F., Hyman, A.A., and Zerial, M. (2001). " In vitro reconstitution of endosome motility on microtubules." Methods in Molecular Biology Ed. I. Vernos, Humana Press, Inc., Totowa, NJ, 135-146.

Nielsen, E., Christoforidis, S., Uttenweiler-Joseph, S., M. Miaczynska, F. Dewitte, M. Wilm, B. Hoflack, and Zerial, M. (2000). "Rabenosyn-5, a novel Rab5 Effector is Complexed with hVPS45, and is Recruited to Endosomes through a FYVE-finger Domain." J. Cell Biol. 151: 601-612. Read Publication.

Sönnichsen, B., De Renzis, S., Nielsen, E., Rietdorf, J., and Zerial, M. (2000). "Distinct membrane domains in the endosomal recycling pathway visualized by multi-color imaging of Rab4, 5, and 11." J. Cell Biol. 149: 901-913. Read Publication.

**Nielsen, E., Severin, F., Backer, J.M., Hyman, A.A., and Zerial, M. (1999). "Rab5 regulates motility of early endosomes on microtubules." Nature Cell Biol. 1: 376-382. **This manuscript was published with an accompanying News and Views article, Nature Cell Biol., 1, E145-E147 (1999), and was recently cited in the "Headlines" section of Trends in Cell Biology, TICB, 10, 52 (2000), and the "Paper Alert" section of Current Opinion in Cell Biology, Curr. Op. Cell Biol., 12, 1-11 (2000). Read Publication.

Turner, G., Gershenzon, J., Nielsen, E.E., Froehlich, J.E., Croteau, R. (1999). "Limonene synthase, the enzyme responsible for monoterpene biosynthesis in peppermint, is localized to leucoplasts of oil gland secretory cells." Plant Physiol. 120: 879-886. Read Publication.

Keegstra, K., Akita, M., Davila-Aponte, J., Froehlich, J., Nielsen, E., and Reumann, S. (1998). "Transport of cytoplasmically synthesized proteins into chloroplasts." In: NATO-ASI Series, Vol. H 104. Cellular integration of signalling pathways in plant development. Eds. F.L. Schiavo, R.L. Last, G. Morelli, and N.V. Raikhel, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 23-33. .

Nielsen, E., Akita, M., Davila-Aponte, J., and Keegstra, K. (1997). "Stable association of chloroplastic precursors with protein-translocation complexes that contain proteins from both envelope membranes and a stromal Hsp100 molecular chaperone." EMBO J. 16: 935-946. Read Publication.

Akita, M., Nielsen, E., and Keegstra, K. (1997). "Identification of protein transport complexes in the chloroplastic envelope membranes via chemical crosslinking." J. Cell Biol. 136: 983-994. Read Publication.

Lübeck, J., Soll, J., Akita, M., Nielsen, E., and Keegstra, K. (1996). "Topology of IEP110, a component of the chloroplastic protein import machinery present in the inner envelope membrane." EMBO J. 15: 4230-4238. Read Publication.

Schneider, J.C., Nielsen, E., and Somerville, C. (1995). "A chilling-sensitive mutant of Arabidopsis is deficient in chloroplast protein accumulation at low temperature." Plant Cell and Environ. 18: 23-32 . Read Publication.

Nielsen, E., You, Y., and Forney, J. (1991). "Cysteine residue periodicity is a conserved structural feature of variable surface proteins from Paramecium tetraurelia." J. Mol. Biol. 222: 835-841.