Molecular Physiology

The research within Prof. Lothar Willmitzer's department is focused on metabolism in its broadest sense, primarily using reverse genetics to alter plants and functional genomic approaches to analyse the pleiotropic effects of these alterations.

Lothar Willmitzer

Director of Department 1: Molecular Physiology

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Amino Acid and Sulfur Metabolism

Sulfur is together with nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium a plant macronutrient and a crucial element affecting plant growth, plant performance and yield. The group of Dr. Rainer Hoefgen focuses on characterising the regulation of cysteine and methionine as a result of sulfate uptake and assimilation in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. [more]

Applied Metabolome Analysis

The group of Dr. Joachim Kopka, formerly known as "Root Metabolism", has a bipartite mission, on one hand the development of enabling technologies for metabolome and fluxome analysis on the other hand the application of new technology to yet unsolved problems in root physiology. [more]

Central Metabolism

The group of Dr. Alisdair Fernie focuses on identifying factors involved in metabolic regulation of primary metabolism within both photosynthetic and heterotrophic tissues. Particular focus is given to the role of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and its participation within various biological processes. [more]

Small-Molecule Signalling

The aims of Dr. Aleksandra Skirycz's group are the identification and functional characterization of novel signaling and regulatory small molecules by studying protein-metabolite interactions.

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Stress Control Networks

The research group of Dr. Salma Balazadeh aims to functionally characterise and identify the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of transcription factors (TFs) involved in the adaptation of plant growth to environmental changes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and transfer the knowledge obtained in Arabidopsis to crops such as tomato. [more]

Metabolic regulation of Plant Growth

The research group of Dr. Camila Caldana aims at understanding the regulatory mechanisms of plant metabolism to promote growth in response to energetic status/environmental signals. In particular, we are interested in dissecting the role of the Target Of Rapamycin (TOR) pathway, a central regulator coordinating those factors among eukaryotes. [more]

Genetics of Crop Metabolism

The project group of Dr. Saleh Alseekh focuses on the identification of genes involved in plant specialized metabolites. The group uses quantitative genetic approaches and metabolomics techniques to assess the chemical diversity across a wide range of natural accessions and mapping populations of crop plants. [more]