Figure: Plants survive solely on inorganic nutrients and sustain global ecosystems and human life. (Background image: Pflanze mit freiliegenden Wurzeln © ThomasVogel - istockphoto #170943374).
Our goal is to advance our integrative molecular-functional understanding of the interactions of plants with their environment. We investigate both the acclimation of plants to changing conditions and evolutionary adaptations at the molecular level. Our work brings together expertise and methods from various disciplines, for example genome-based functional genomics, molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, physiology, ecology and evolutionary biology. With a strong focus on comparative approaches between and within species, we also combine laboratory work with the characterization of plant populations in their natural habitats and field experiments in some projects.
We work primarily in basic research and on the interactions of plants with the composition of their local soil. We focus primarily on nutrient metals (such as iron, zinc, copper) and chemically similar toxic heavy metals (cadmium and lead). Our research has a wide range of possible applications, for example in the production of higher-yielding and healthier crops (“bio-fortification”) and the development of sustainable plant-based solutions for the extraction of raw materials (“phytomining”) and the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils (“phytoremediation”). The chair also participates in projects in these fields of applied research.
Given the highly reactive chemical properties of metallic elements, plants, as stationary primary producers, are particularly dependent on precisely maintaining metal homeostasis, and this activity also influences the organisms in their vicinity in a variety of ways. One main goal of our work is to unravel the genetic basis and molecular-physiological mechanisms of tolerance to heavy metals in extremophytes - plants that are adapted to soils containing toxic levels of heavy metals. With a similar objective, we are studying heavy metal hyperaccumulation in plants. Metal hyperaccumulation is particularly fascinating from an evolutionary-ecological perspective, with regard to the required physiological capabilities, and also for technology development. In our central model organism, Arabidopsis halleri, there is also an extraordinarily large within-species range of physiological characteristics. We would like to identify the underlying genetic differences and ecological processes. Using the classic model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, we are investigating important functions in molecular metal homeostasis networks, the acclimation processes involved and their regulatory integration with metabolism, growth and development. Our work addresses general and cell type-specific functions of membrane transport proteins, regulators of plant metal homeostasis, enzymes of chelator biosynthesis, new central metal-dependent pathways, as well as plant-associated microbial communities.
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Last update: Nov 05, 2024
