Molecular and Applied Plant Sciences major Topics and lecturers

Regulation of flavonoid synthesis in grapevine

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) represents economically the most important fruit globally, covering up to 8 million ha worldwide. The biosynthesis of natural product determining the quality of the grape berry and wine and biotic/abiotic factors limiting growth and yield of the crop are research topic in the AG Bogs. Hereby, flavonoids and monoterpenes play important roles for grape berries and wine contributing substantially to their taste, aroma quality and nutrition. Therefore, transcriptional regulation of the flavonoid and monoterpene pathways of grapevine in respect to the developmental stage and environmental factors is studied in this group. The lack of natural resistance against most fungal diseases of V. vinifera and sensitivity against freezing damages causes high financial and environmental costs. Accordingly, another priority of the group is to identify the sources of natural resistance to fungal diseases and frost damages and the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of grapevine resistance.

Weincampus Neustadt

Light Signaling and Cell Biology

Light perception and responses are essential for plant life and how light can be converted into a biochemical signal is a fundamental question in biology. We work on the the cell biological aspects of light signaling: Nuclear Photobodies. Phytochromes are the main red light sensors in plants and phytochromes form small subnuclear bodies, called photobodies.  These subnuclear structures also contain supporting cofactors and downstream transcription factors and they play an important role in regulating light responses. Importantly, phytochromeB (phyB) is not only required for light-, but also for temperature-sensing, suggesting that photobodies also play an important role for plant responses to ambient temperature. We use confocal microscopy, biochemistry and molecular genetics to study how photobodies form and how they function.

Go to van Gelderen lab

Growth and Cell Fate Regulation

How are cellular properties coordinated during growth and development to generate functional organs and whole bodies? In our lab we use lateral growth of plant shoots as an example to address this fundamental question. Lateral growth is based on the tissue-forming properties of a group of stem cells called the cambium, the activity of which leads to the production of secondary vascular tissue (wood and bast). Considering its function as a stem cell niche that is essential for the constant production of new tissues in a highly differentiated cellular environment, the cambium represents an ideal model for addressing questions concerning the regulation of cell identity and how growth processes are aligned with endogenous and exogenous requirements.

Go to Greb lab

Molecular biology of plants

Our work aims at the understanding of how plants work under different environmental conditions. In project 1 the availability of nutrients is investigated at the whole plant level. The assimilation of sulfate and its interaction with iron metabolism are analysed with respect to metabolites, gene expression, protein biochemistry and cell biology.

Project 2 discovers the functions of N-alpha-terminal acetylation of proteins. This usually co-translational process is the most common modification of soluble proteins in plants and animals and operates in protein stability and many other functions and contributes to stress resistance.

Go to Hell lab

MYCOLOGY IN FRUIT CROPS

• Diagnosis, epidemiology and control of fungal diseases 
• Investigations on host-parasite interactions 
• Development of sustainable plant protection methods, e.g. for the apple replant disease 
• Collaboration in the development of edicts and legislative proposals; consultancy for the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the European and Mediterranean Plant Organization,  and the European Union (EU)
• Involvement in the preparation and enhancement of guidelines for efficiency tests with plant protection products and for integrated production in fruit growing as well as for pest risk analysis for invasive species

Julius Kühn-Institut

Cell Biology

Changing environmental conditions trigger diverse metabolic and developmental adaptation reactions in plants. These adaptation mechanisms involve cellular changes in the levels of Ca²⁺ and H⁺ but also changes in hormones, metabolites and cellular redox state. Fluorescent indicators are ideally suited to monitor dynamic changes of various molecules associated with signaling or metabolism. We employ different fluorescent indicators techniques to study physiological and cellular processes in living plant cells. This helps us to get new insight into signaling, physiology and metabolism in plant cells.

Go to Krebs lab

 

Biodiversity and plant systematics

Evolutionary and biodiversity research in our department is focusing on various levels of biological variation - from molecules to landscapes. In our department we are addressing questions on 1) systematics and phylogenetic relationships among plant species, 2) phylobiogeography (the distribution of genetic variation in space and time), 3) the evolution of molecular marker systems (from single genes and regions to whole genomes), 4) adaptation processes and character trait evolution, 5) genome evolution, 6) speciation processes, breeding system evolution and differentiation on the population level, 7) developmental-molecular processes responsible for maintaining plant cell identity, and 8) structure, morphology and evolution of angiosperm flowers. For many of the projects we are focusing on cruciferous plants (mustard family, Brassicaceae). Our aim is to develop this group of more than 3700 species into one of the most important model systems on the family level and below.

Go to Koch lab

Stem cell biology

Work in the department of Stem Cell Biology is focused on the regulatory programs governing shoot meristem function and the control of stem cell number in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana. To this end we employ an integrated approach of advanced genetic, genomic, and molecular methods together with computational analysis to determine how hard-wired genetic circuits underlying stem cell control are orchestrated and integrated with environmental signals.

Go to Jan Lohmann lab

Regulation of plant morphogenesis

Work in my laboratory focuses on understanding how plant organs, in particular roots, are shaped. This morphogenesis results from the combined action of the plant genes controlling cell identity, the mechanical interactions between cells and tissues, and the physical environment in which development takes place. However, very little is known about the perception of environmental inputs and their impact on morphogenesis. Our focus is to understand how temperature and water availability alter this process. Our work is based on an integrated approach of cell biology, molecular genetics, advanced microscopy, and biochemical methods together with computational analysis to advance our physical and biological understanding of how biological shapes arise.

Go to Maizel lab

Plant developmental biology

Due to their sessile lifestyle, plants need to efficiently adapt their metabolic and developmental program to changing and often unfavourable environmental conditions. Adaptation often involves considerable fluctuations of metabolite and ion concentrations between tissues, cells and organelles that are mediated either by membrane transport or vesicular trafficking. Our lab has shown that in the model plant Arabidopis the V-ATPase, a highly conserved eikaryotic proton-pumps, does not only fuel secondary active transport processes but also plays anl important role in the regulation of endocytic and secretory trafficking. 

Current research aims at understanding the regulatory networks that control V-ATPase activity as well as the identification of the biological interactions that depend on the activity of this complex proton-pump. Using Arabidopsis as our main model system, we employ genetics and cell biology as well as biochemistry and physiology to provide knowledge that could eventually lead to novel strategies for improved crop yield under stress conditions.

Go to Schumacher lab

 

We are searching for a solution to one of the most alarming problems in agriculture: Pesticides. Based on the sustainable agriculture goals of the EU and many other countries, chemical pesticide use has been planned to be cut off in the near future. Therefore, we are developing RNA interference-based biodegradable pesticides as more efficient alternatives to chemical pesticides. To be able to design our products more efficiently in AG Uslu, we extensively investigate intracellular RNA dynamics, RNA delivery tools, CRISPR-based (epi)genetic plant breeding approaches as well as chromatin dynamics in the context of plant-environment interaction.

RLP AgroScience

PLANT STRESS PHYSIOLOGY 

Plants are sessile organisms that must cope with environmental challenges on site. To understand how plants coordinate their resources in response to such stimuli,  we focus on four closely related aspects of plant development and stress tolerance:

1. Perception of nutrient supply by reversible protein-protein interaction.

2. Impact of nutrient supply on hormone biosynthesis, developmental plasticity and stress tolerance.

3. Regulation of cell division, translation, and autophagy by the sensor kinase Target of rapamycin.

4. The role of N-terminal protein acetylation in proteostasis and stress responses.

Go to Wirtz lab