​Calcium is a ubiquitous second messenger in signal transduction pathways of all eukaryotic cells. In plants, calcium signalling plays critical roles in a variety of developmental processes as well as during cellular responses to abiotic and biotic stress. The evolutionarily-conserved calcium sensor, Calmodulin (CaM), responds to calcium signals and, through protein-protein interactions in cells, facilitates downstream responses. Plants possess an additional and unique family of “calmodulin-like” (CML) calcium sensors which, in Arabidopsis thaliana, contains 50 members. Despite this expanded complexity, few of the binding partners and/or in vivo functions of CMLs are known. Here I present data from my PhD thesis demonstrating that CaM and a subfamily of biochemically unusual CMLs are capable of interacting with specialized structural domains from among three distinct and unrelated protein families in Arabidopsis. I utilised a combination of genetic, biochemical, and biophysical approaches to explore the physical properties and physiological  roles of CML interactions with these putative targets. Collectively, my data suggests novel functions for plant CMLs in gene regulation and cytoskeletal activity.

​Dr. Arinjay Banerjee is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Karen Mossman’s laboratory at McMaster University. Over the last 6 years, he has studied emerging zoonotic viruses, such as coronaviruses that spill over from wildlife species (eg. bats) to infect humans and cause severe disease. More recently, Dr. Banerjee has been investigating SARS-CoV-2 and its interaction with the human immune system. In this talk, he will discuss his current research on SARS-CoV-2 and work that his team shall undertake at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization to investigate emerging zoonotic viruses and develop countermeasures.