Motivation
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The societal challenges posed by a growing human population and climate change necessitate technical advances in plant science. Plant cells are fundamental organizational units that mediate the production, transport, and storage of our primary food sources and sequester a significant portion of the world's carbon. A comprehensive understanding of plant cell structure and function at a molecular level is essential to uncover the mechanisms by which plants produce the services upon which we depend.
Today’s innovations in systems biology, sensors and biosensors, data science and artificial intelligence, gene editing, precision breeding, and the microbiome position us to make unprecedented discoveries in plant science. However, the plant biology community lacks a complete picture of the location of molecular machineries within cells, their distribution among various cells, and their dynamics in real time. |
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Goals
The PCA will map cellular and sub-cellular protein localization patterns, track the dynamic interactions between proteins, identify the molecular components of cellular substructures, discern complete states and transitions of specialized cell types, and integrate these disparate data points in order to generate testable models of cellular function.
To successfully implement the PCA Initiative, we convened leaders from imaging, proteomics, genomics, nanotechnology, and data science to a Kick-Off Workshop to discuss how to best build this community resource.
To successfully implement the PCA Initiative, we convened leaders from imaging, proteomics, genomics, nanotechnology, and data science to a Kick-Off Workshop to discuss how to best build this community resource.
Milestones
May/June 2020: 1st Plant Cell Atlas Workshop held
April 2019: “Towards Building a Plant Cell Atlas” published
