Dr. Michael Knoblauch

Michael Knoblauch

Professor, School of Biological Sciences, and Director, Franceschi Microscopy and Imaging Center. Ph.D. 2000, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany.

Research

We investigate cell biological phenomena that have an impact on whole plant physiology and ultimately on food security, climate change and bioenergy crops. We utilize molecular biological-, cell biological-, and bio-imaging tools and develop new methods and protocols to enable previously impossible studies. We like lab work as well as field work and sometimes do relatively unusual things like taking microscopes into the canopy of trees or on boats, to study the cell biology of large organisms in situ. Besides the standard instrumentation for molecular biological and biochemical work, we use state of the art and cutting edge bio-imaging instrumentation. For more information on our research, please click the link to our homepage below.

https://labs.wsu.edu/knoblauch/

2001 Best-Dissertation-Award, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany
2002 Wilhelm-Pfeffer-Price from the German Botanical Society
2006 Herbert L. Eastlick Distinguished Professorship, Washington State University.
2013 Harvard Bullard Fellowship

Representative Publications

1. Knoblauch M, Vendrell M, de Leau E, Paterlini A, Knox K, Ross-Elliot T, Reinders A, Brockman SA, Ward J, Oparka K. (2015) Multispectral phloem-mobile probes: properties and applications. Plant Physiology 167 1211-1220

2. Knoblauch J, Mullendore DL, Jensen KH, Knoblauch M (2014) Pico gauges for minimally invasive intracellular hydrostatic pressure measurements. Plant Physiology 166, 1271-1279

3. Knoblauch M, Froelich DF, Pickard WF, Peters WS (2014) SEORious business: structural proteins in sieve tubes and their involvement in sieve element occlusion. Journal of Experimental Botany 65 1879-1893.

4. Dettmer J, Ursache, R, Campilho, A, Miyashima, S, Belevich, I, O’Regan, S, Mullendore, DL, Yadav, SR, Lanz, C, Beverina, L, Papagni, A, Schneeberger, K, Weigel, D, Stierhof, YD, Moritz, T, Knoblauch, M, Jokitalo, E, Helariutta, Y…More. (2014) CHOLINE TRANSPORTER-LIKE1 is required for sieve plate development to mediate long-distance cell-to-cell communication. Nature Communications 5, 1-11

5. Knoblauch M, Oparka KJ (2012) The structure of the phloem–still more questions than answers. The Plant Journal. 70 (2012) 147-156

6. Froelich DF, Mullendore DM, Jensen KH, Ross-Elliott TJ, Anstead JA, Thompson GA, Pelissier H, Knoblauch M (2011) Phloem Ultrastructure And Pressure Flow: Sieve-Element-Oclussion-Related Agglomerations Do Not Affect Translocation. The Plant Cell, 23

7. Knoblauch M, Peters WS (2010) Münch, morphology, microfluidics – our structural problem with the phloem. Plant, Cell, Environment 33, 1439 – 1452

8. Mullendore D, Windt CW, Van As H, Knoblauch M. (2010) Sieve tube geometry in relation to phloem flow. The Plant Cell 22, 579-593

9. Pelissier, HC, Peters WS, Collier R, Van Bel AJE, Knoblauch M (2008) GFP Tagging of Sieve Element Occlusion (SEO) Proteins Results in Green Fluorescent Forisomes. Plant and Cell Physiology, 49 (11), 1699-1710

10. Knoblauch M, Noll GA, Müller T, Prüfer D, Schneider-Hüther I, Scharner D, van Bel AJE, Peters WS (2003) ATP-independent contractile proteins from plants. Nature Materials 2, 600-603

11. Knoblauch M, Peters WS, Ehlers K, van Bel AJE (2001) Reversible calcium-regulated stopcocks in legume sieve tubes. The Plant Cell 13, 1221-1230

12. Knoblauch M, Hibberd JM, Gray JC, van Bel AJE (1999) A galinstan expansion femtosyringe for injection of eukaryotic organelles and prokaryotes. Nature Biotechnology 17, 906-909

13. Knoblauch M, van Bel AJE (1998) Sieves tubes in action. The Plant Cell 10, 35-50