Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Ryohei Thomas Nakano

Ryohei Thomas Nakano, first author of A Golgi-released subpopulation of the trans-Golgi network mediates protein secretion in Arabidopsis

Current Position: Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany

Education: M.Sc (2009) and D.Sc (2012) in Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: Spending time with family, music (guitar, piano, trombone, and euphonium)

Brief bio: I was born in the United States of America and grew up in Tokyo, Japan. I completed my bachelor, master, and doctoral studies at Kyoto University, Japan, working on the molecular mechanisms employed by eukaryotic cells to regulate their intracellular membrane dynamics. My particular focus was on Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with impaired endoplasmic reticulum (ER) morphology, which we termed ermo mutants (ermo1, ermo2, and ermo3). After a short postdoc, in early 2013, I moved to Cologne to join the group of Prof. Paul Schulze-Lefert at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ, Germany) and started studying the interactions between plants and associated microbial communities (plant microbiota). As of January 2019, I am continuing my work as a principal investigator at the MPIPZ and ultimately aim to understand the molecular dialog at the plant-microbiota interface and the community-level governance of microbiota functions that dictates host fitness and immunity.