---

News Archive

• Current News

28 February 2024
Goodbye and Tschöö, Steffi!
We have to say farewell to Stefanie Höller, who was a member of our lab for many years. Building on her background in metals and oxidative stress, Steffi has developed projects on iron and manganese homeostasis with exciting insights into novel mechanisms that are in the pipeline for publication. In addition to her own research, she was tremendously liked by our students, who she has supervised in internships, thesis projects, and her own modules. Steffi also did a fantastic service to the entire plant nutrition community, which she enthusiastically supported as Managing Director of the German Society of Plant Nutrition, including the development of its new websites. We are delighted that Steffi will be continuing her journey in academica as a permanent lecturer at the Biology Department of the University of Düsseldorf. The students will love her! Steffi - all the very best back im Rheinland!

2023

25 - 27 September 2023
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
We went to the 55th Annual Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP)   , which was organized by the University of Hohenheim and held in the historic premises of Hohenheim castle. Oriana was selected for an oral presentation on organellar calcium and manganese transport; Steffi, Sri and Stan presented posters. Sri continued her winning streak and received the fourth time a prize for her innovative poster. Congratulations, Sri!

18 - 19 September 2023
DBG @ Halle
We hosted a very constructive and energetic two-day meeting of the extended board of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) to take stock and forge the future of this institution that brings together plant scientists in Germany.

12 September 2023
How barley responds to oxidative stress
In cereal crops, such as barley, the ability to appropriately respond to environmental stress is an important factor for yield stability and thus for agricultural production. Reactive oxygen species, such as hydrogen peroxide, are key components of signal transduction cascades involved in plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Hydrogen peroxide-mediated stress responses include the modulation of expression of stress-responsive genes (transcriptome) required to cope with different abiotic and biotic stresses. A study led by Ute Vothknecht and Fatima Chigri of the University of Bonn with contributions from Bastian and Edgar of our lab identified global transcriptomic changes in barley subjected to hydrogen peroxide. More than a thousand differentially expressed genes were identified in roots and leaves. The data obtained in this study provide an insight into the molecular mechanisms of oxidative stress responses in barley, which also play a role upon other stresses that induce oxidative bursts. The article is published in Frontiers of Plant Science and can be accessed here.   

11 September 2023
Congratulations, Dr Rössner!
Today Nico Rössner very successfully defended his PhD thesis on how plants handle calcium in the Golgi apparatus. Nico was our first student in the vibrant DFG-funded Research Training Group 2498 to which he contributed much enthusiasm. Nico started as Master student in our lab and became an invaluable team member and friend. All the very best for the future and thank you for everything you contributed!

5 - 9 September 2023
Participation at Plant Metals and ICOBTE/ICHMET conferences
Edgar presented a talk on our work on metal transporters in model plants and crops at the conferences of the PLANTMETALS COST Action on Trace Metal Metabolism in Plants and ICOBTE/ICHMET, which were held in Wuppertal.

6 - 10 August 2023
Participation at Gordon Research Conference
Edgar was invited to an exciting GRC on Organellar Channels and Transporters where he presented a talk on our recent work on transporters for calcium and manganese in plants.

3 July 2023
Welcome Marc!
Today, Marc Knight has arrived from Durham (UK) as MLU Visiting Professor. Since many years, Marc is shaping and stimulating the field of plant calcium signalling research. We are very happy that he will stay with us for the next weeks and again in October.

3 June 2023
Ласкаво просимо Станіславе!
Today, Stanislav Isayenkov has arrived from Kyiv (Ukraine). He will pursue an exciting research project on salt tolerance mechanisms of barley relatives. We are immensely happy that the successful application for a fellowship of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, will allow him to conduct research in a safe environment and to further his career.

15 May 2023
Congratulations, Dr Bischoff!
We are very happy that Lisa Bischoff successfully defended her beautiful PhD thesis today on the role of calcium as regulating agent in root nodules and its transport across symbiotic membranes. We wish her all the very best for the future and say a big Thank You for all her contributions to our lab.

28 April 2023
Congratulations, Jie!
Today our former PhD student Jie He (aka. Tiffany) received the Dorothea-Erxleben price of the Martin Luther University, which is awarded for the most outstanding PhD theses. This is a fantastic achievement and a reward for all the enthusiasm, hard work, and inspiration that Jie put into her project. As press release by the University (in German) can be found here.

26 April 2023
Farewell and tạm biệt, Minh!
Today, we had to say good bye to our postdoc Minh Hoang. Minh joined us in 2018 to work on the importance of chloroplast ion transporters for plant and crop growth. She first contributed to our exploration of a new family of transporters that regulate chloroplast calcium concentrations (here   ) and further investigated these transporters in sugar beet and barley. Stay tuned for her exciting results that will be published soon. By sharing her deep insights on organellar cation transport, she contributed extensively to the lab’s recent review article   . Minh has been a fantastic member of the team, and we will miss her very much. Together with Santiago she is moving to Münster, where she will continue her plant science journey. Minh, we wish you all the very best for the future and a happy family life in Münster!

28 March 2023
Whirly keeps barley green
Drought stress leads to early senescence in crops that severely affects yield. A study led by Klaus Humbeck at the MLU's Institute of Biology with contributions from our lab now shows that having more Whirly1 protein delays this drought-induced senescence by reducing levels of the stress hormone abscisic acid and by modifying histones, nuclear proteins that regulate gene expression. These findings indicate that Whirly1 is a promising target gene in breeding for drought resistance. The article is published in IJMS and can be accessed here   .

20 March 2023
Welcome Tobias!
Today, Tobias Biermann has started as our new secretary. Tobias will be in charge of finances and personell, support international lab members, and care for the many organisational matters indispensable to keep the lab up and running.

1 March 2023
Benvenuto Sara!
Today, Sara Morghen has arrived from Italy for a lab internship. Sara is a graduate student of Molecular Biology at the University of Padua and will share our excitement on plant calcium signalling.

6 - 9 February 2023
Participation at Molecular Biology of Plants Conference
Srijana Rai and Oriana Mariani presented two posters at the 36^th Conference on Molecular Biology of Plants at Hennef. Following her awards at the conferences at Milan and Bonn last year, Srijana received another prize for her fantastic multimedia poster. Congratulations for scoring that hat trick, Sri!

27 January 2023
Farewell and Adiós, Santiago!
Today, we had to say good bye to our postdoc Santiago Alejandro. Santiago joined us in 2017 to work on manganese efficiency and metal transport in sugar beet. His work yielded intriguing new insights in the functioning of this crop, with a comprehensive paper    just published a couple of days ago (see below) and more to follow. His authoritative review article    on manganese in plants has evolved to one of the 1% most highly cited articles in plant science. More recently, he has been concerned with processes that determine cadmium accumulation in cereal grains, an issue of great importance for food safety. Santiago has been a formative member of our team, and we will miss him very much. From now, as research scientist in the R&D department of a leading fertilizer manufacturer, he will contribute his great knowledge on nutrients to the development of novel cropping practices. Santiago, we wish you all the very best for the future and a happy family life in Münster!

25 January 2023
Sugar beet isn’t Arabidopsis with a tap root - study reveals high diversity in metal handling by dicot plants
Manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn) are essential for diverse processes in plants, but their availability from soil is often limiting or excessive. Transport proteins in cellular membranes confer the efficient usage or detoxification of these metals. Knowledge about these processes may be harnessed to improve crops. An important family of metal transporters are the CATION DIFFUSION FACILITATORs (CDFs), called METAL TOLERANCE PROTEINs (MTPs) in plants. Roles of these transporters have been inferred mainly from work on model species, like Arabidopsis thaliana. It is unclear to what extent these findings can be generalized. In a new study, we show that MTPs in sugar beet often deviate from their Arabidopsis counterparts in terms of transported metals, subcellular localization, as well as regulation upon exposure to Fe, Mn, and Zn deficiencies and Mn and Zn toxicities. Also, the ion composition of sugar beet responds differently to metal nutrient imbalances than that of Arabidopsis. These results suggest that metal homeostasis and the employment of the MTP toolbox is highly diverse amongst different plant species, which questions the general applicability of models derived from Arabidopsis and calls for functional studies of these processes on crop plants. The article is published in Plant, Cell & Environment and can be accessed here.   

25 January 2023
Change at the Helm of the German Society of Plant Nutrition
For four eventful years, Edgar Peiter and Stefanie Höller have been in office as first chairman and managing director, respectively, of the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP)   . Today they handed over the affairs to the newly elected board of directors, represented by Klaus Dittert as the new first chairman and Tino Kreszies as new managing director (both University of Göttingen). We wish the new team, which also includes Christoph-Martin Geilfus as second chairman and Patrick Bienert as assessor, every success in leading our professional society from strength to strength.

2022

December 2022
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Peiter lab wishes to all its members, alumni, students, and friends a peaceful Christmas and all the very best for 2023!

17 November 2022
Improving iron nutrition of broccoli
Broccoli is a vegetable of very high nutritional value. However, iron deficiency can cause reduced growth and yield. A study led by Ahmad Kabir at the University of Georgia with contributions from our lab now shows that a nitric oxide donor is able to improve iron acquisition and iron status of this plant. This finding may lead to strategies to improve iron nutrition of broccoli. The article is published in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry and can be accessed here   .

10 November 2022
Contribution to perspective article on agriculture and food security under a changing climate
The anthropogenic rise in CO₂ provokes massive disruptions in the global climate that will have a tremendous impact on agriculture and food security. In a perspective article led by Ralf Seppelt (UFZ Halle-Leipzig) with contributions of Stefan Klotz, Martin Volk (both UFZ) and Edgar Peiter, the available evidence on how the global food system might look given a global temperature increase by 3° is reviewed. We show that a moderate gain in the area suitable for agriculture is confronted with substantial yield losses through strains on crop physiology, multitrophic interactions, and more frequent extreme events. Self-amplifying feedbacks are unresolved and might lead to further losses. In light of these uncertainties, we see that complexity is underestimated and more systemic research is needed. Efficiency gains in agriculture, albeit indispensable, will not be enough to achieve food security under severe climate change. The article is published in iScience and can be accessed here   .

21 October 2022
How lupins detoxify manganese
White Lupins have the ability to mobilize the mineral nutrient phosphate (P) with outstanding efficiency by releasing organic compounds into the soil. This P mobilization also leads to a mobilization of manganese (Mn), which is taken up and accumulates to concentrations that would be highly toxic to most plants. The molecular basis of the Mn detoxification mechanism in White Lupin has been unknown until now. In a collaborative study, Uwe Ludewig and his PhD student Philipp Olt at Hohenheim University, jointly with our postdoc Santiago Alejandro and his Master students Edith Ramos and Johann Fermum have identified and characterized a transport protein that moves Mn into vacuoles of White Lupin, where it is safely stored. This transporter provides a mechanistic explanation for the high Mn accumulation and Mn tolerance in this species. The article is published in Physiologia Plantarum and can be accessed here   .

4 - 6 October 2022
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
Most of our lab went to the 54th Annual Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP), which was organized by the Technical University Munich and held at its Science and Study Centre in Raitenhaslach, nestled in a most scenic location. Santiago and Minh were selected for oral presentations; Bastian, Nico, Sri and Steffi presented posters. The conference was followed by the annual DGP member’s assembly that included a traditional Weisswurst breakfast. A great Thank You! to the organizers for hosting such a fantastic meeting.

1 October 2022
Good bye, Julia!
Today, our office administrator Julia Rödiger has climbed the career ladder and started a new position in the University’s central administration. We have been very lucky and happy to have Julia as a group member in the past years. She not only fantastically handled all the many organisational matters of the lab and solved many problems, but also organized great lab outings and cute birthday pressies. We wish Julia a lot of joy and success in her new position and will stay in touch.

26 September 2022
Regulation of manganese uptake by calcium signalling
Manganese is indispensable for photosynthesis and other processes in plants, like cell wall synthesis (see news of 22 Aug 2022). On soils with low manganese availability, crop growth and yield can be severely reduced. However, it has remained largely unknown how fluctuations in manganese supply are sensed and signalled and how the activity of manganese transporters is regulated. A study led by the groups of Cun Wang (Northwest A&F University, China) and Jörg Kudla (University of Münster) revealed that novel multicellular calcium oscillations are triggered by manganese depletion. These calcium signals are believed to activate a set of protein kinases that again regulate the principal manganese uptake transporter, NRAMP1. Our postdoc Stefanie Höller contributed photosynthesis analyses to this exciting work, that delineates a mechanism of calcium-regulated manganese uptake by plants, which may be a key to increase manganese uptake efficiency of crops. The article is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) and can be accessed here.    A press release by the University of Münster can be found here   .

22 September 2022
Regulator of fungal cell wall synthesis revealed
The composition of the fungal cell wall is a crucial factor for virulence of pathogens. A study led by the Institute’s Phytopathology group of Holger Deising has identified the RHO4 protein of the devastating maize anthracnose fungus as regulator of cell wall synthesis, crucial for hyphal growth and infection of its host plant. Kathrin Thor, a former postdoc of our lab, has contributed imaging analyses that show a reduced abundance of the cell wall component beta-1,3-glucan and a compensation by higher chitin abundance in the absence of the RHO4 protein. The article is published in the Journal of Fungi and can be accessed here.    

18 September 2022
Elucidation of calcium signals in barley
Plants are continuously exposed to changing environmental conditions and biotic attacks that affect growth. In crops, inability to respond appropriately to stress has detrimental effects on agricultural production and yield. Calcium plays a central role in rendering plants resilient to unfavourable conditions. Upon perception of the stress, transient or repetitive rises in free cytosolic calcium trigger mechanisms of defence or adaptation. However, research on such calcium signals has mostly been pursued in the model plant Arabidopsis, while in crop species these events are little investigated. In a collaboration with the labs of Ute Vothknecht (University of Bonn) and Karl-Heinz Kogel (University of Gießen), we therefore introduced a calcium reporter gene in the crop species barley, which enabled us detect calcium signals upon biotic and abiotic stresses and compare those to Arabidopsis. Beside common patterns, notable differences were identified that may relate to different stress responses of both species. The newly generated transgenic barley reporter lines present a valuable tool to further analyse and improve mechanisms of calcium signalling and stress reponse in this crop. The article is published in BMC Plant Biology and can be accessed here.    

28 August - 1 September 2022
Participation at Plant Science Conference
Nico Rössner, Srijana Rai, Bastian Meier, and Edgar Peiter joined the International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences (“Botanik-Tagung”) at Bonn. Together with Gabriel Schaaf, Edgar chaired the fantastic session on Molecular Plant Nutrition, which was supported by the German Society of Plant Nutrition. Edgar and Bastian presented talks on calcium signals in barley and manganese transport in the Golgi. Sri again received an award for her multimedia poster on systemic calcium signal imaging. Congratulations, Sri!

The next Botanik-Tagung will take place in 2024 at Halle. We look forward to welcome the Plant Science community to our great city!

30 August - 01 September 2022
Participation at Plant Metals Conference
Santiago Alejandro and Stefanie Höller presented at talk and a poster at the annual conference of the PLANTMETALS COST Action on Trace Metal Metabolism in Plants, which was held in Ankara (Turkey).

22 August 2022
Mechanism of manganese supply for cell wall synthesis revealed
Manganese is essential for life on earth. The element catalyses photosynthetic water splitting in the chloroplast, the process that drives CO₂ fixation and that produces the atmosphere’s oxyen. Manganese is also required by glycosyl transferases, enzymes that synthesise the plant cell wall components pectin and hemicellulose and hence determine plant growth. These biosynthetic reactions take place in the cell’s Golgi apparatus, but it is not well understood how manganese enters this compartment. We have identified a transport protein, BIVALENT CATION TRANSPORTER 3 (BICAT3) that supplies the Golgi apparatus with manganese and that determines the distribution of manganese between chloroplast and Golgi under manganese-limiting conditions, as they occur frequently in the field. The BICAT3 protein may hence prove as a yield limiting bottleneck for plant performance at low manganese availability and may be a target for crop improvement. The article is published in Plant Physiology and can be accessed here.    It has been covered in a News & Views article by Stefanie Wege that can be accessed here   . A press release by the University can be found here.

11-13 July 2022
Participation at Plant Calcium Signalling Conference
Nico Rössner, Srijana Rai, and Edgar Peiter joined the PCS2022 conference in Milan (Italy), where we again won a poster award. Congratulations, Sri!

7 July 2022
Contribution to book chapter on agriculture in a hotter world
Global climate change, provoked by the anthropogenic rise in CO₂, is progressing at an alarming pace. The new book “3 Grad Mehr” (available here   ) presents an outlook by scientists of different fields to looming scenarios that we will face in a hotter world. A widespread collapse of ecosystems and societies can now only be prevented by massive changes in human behaviour and economy, including the way we produce and distribute food. Ralf Seppelt, Stefan Klotz, Martin Volk (all UFZ Halle-Leipzig) and Edgar Peiter contributed a chapter on agriculture in a hotter world to this eye-opening volume.

4-7 July 2022
Participation at International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants
Stefanie Höller presented an award-winning poster on our work on manganese and iron translocation at the 20th ISINIP conference, which was held in Reims (France). Congratulations, Steffi!

1 July 2022
Bienvenida Oriana!
Today, Oriana Mariani started her PhD within the DFG Research Training Group 2498, which focuses on plant organellar interactions. Oriana has obtained her degree at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina. In her project, she will elucidate mechanisms of calcium transport in cellular compartments and the relevance of this for plant performance. Let it glow!

19 May 2022
Polymers that cleave DNA
Enediynes are structures of promising antitumor antibiotics that become active upon a Bergman cyclization reaction, which creates a reactive radical. This radical can cause DNA strand breaks, inducing programmed cell death. The lab of Wolfgang Binder (MLU Institute of Chemistry) has now achieved to embed enediynes in the main chain of a polymer. Their DNA cleavage activity can be modified by chain length. These novel polymers can be the basis to design selective DNA-cleaving drugs. Our lab contributed to the DNA cleavage assays of this exciting work, which was led by Yue Cai. The paper is published in Polymer Chemistry and can be accessed here   .

4 March 2022
Large study on phosphorus fertilization recommendations in Europe
Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, and excessive P fertilization can lead to environmental problems. P fertilization recommendations aim to reach or maintain an optimum level of plant-available P in the soil. A comparative analysis led by Kristin Steinfurth and Uwe Buczko at the University of Rostock revealed that thresholds of P recommendations vary by a factor of up to five between European countries. Furthermore, an analysis of European long-term P fertilization experiments showed that those P recommendation thresholds are often much higher than necessary for optimum yield. This calls for a reconsideration P fertilization recommendations in some countries for a more sustainable and environmentally friendly P fertilization. We contributed data sets from our long-term field experiment, that has been running since 1949, to this large-scale analysis. The paper, which is published in Agriculture, Exosystems & Environment, is available online and can be accessed here   .

2021

December 2021
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Peiter lab wishes to all its members, alumni, students, and friends a peaceful Christmas and all the very best for 2022!

21 December 2021
English DGP websites
Today the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP)    has launched its English web pages. The DGP is the platform of the Plant Nutrition community in Germany. It fosters scientific exchange, releases statements, and promotes young scientists. In response to the pandemic, the membership fee is fully suspended in 2022.

20 December 2021
Congratulations, Dr He!
Today Jie He very successfully defended her outstanding PhD thesis on the in-depth characterization of a manganese transporter, which plays an important role in cell wall formation in barley and Arabidopsis. Jie was funded by a CSC scholarship and later by the Agripoly-DPP graduate school. Before returning to China, she will stay in the lab as a postdoc to continue this exciting project. We wish her all the very best for the future and thank her for everything she contributed to the lab family!

23 September 2021
Paper on metal storage in seeds
Iron and zinc deficiencies are widespread nutritional disorders in humans, affecting more than half of the world’s population. Moreover, improved micronutrient accumulation in seeds can contribute to seedling vigour, abiotic and biotic stress resistance, and enhanced crop yields. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of micronutrient allocation in the developing seed is of great importance. Based on the involvement of the vacuolar transport protein MTP8 in manganese and iron homeostasis in developing and germinating seeds, we hypothesized that its overexpression can confer tolerance to high Mn concentrations during imbibition and bring about an increase in metal concentration in the seed. The latter would render this transporter a promising target for genetic biofortification. Besides determining metal concentrations, we employed high-resolution synchrotron micro X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) tomography to investigate the impact of MTP8 on metal distribution in seeds. The results indicate that, albeit overexpression of MTP8 entails increased tolerance to high Mn levels during seed imbibition, it does not alter Mn and Fe accumulation and allocation. Click here to access the article, which is published in Plant Biology.   

22-24 September 2021
Participation at Plant Nutrition conference
Six of us participated at this year's Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition that was held online and organized by our colleagues at Kiel. Edgar Peiter gave a talk covering our work on calcium transport and signalling, and we also presented five posters.

22 September 2021
DGP Annual Meeting
Today the annual members' meeting of the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP; www.plant-nutrition.de   ) was held online. Edgar Peiter and Stefanie Höller were re-elected as chairman and manager, respectively, and will strive to advance the field and bring together the community.

19-23 September 2021
Participation at FEBS workshop
Nico Rössner presented a poster at the 3^rd FEBS workshop on Plant Organellar Signalling at Primosten (Croatia).

18 June 2021
Bringing together biofortification and cadmium reduction
Genetic biofortification of cereals is an effective means to fight iron and zinc malnutrition in humans (“hidden hunger”). Conversely, cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal that accumulates in grains. Unfortunately, most approaches to reduce Cd in food also have a negative impact on iron, zinc, and manganese. In a vision paper published in New Phytologist, Sakthivel Kailasam of Michigan State University and Edgar Peiter have drafted a potential way out of this dilemma. They propose a directed evolution of transport proteins towards higher selectivity against Cd by employing new genome editing techniques. Click here    to access the article.

7 May 2021
New DGP website
Today the German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP)    has launched its new web pages. The DGP represents the scientific area of Plant Nutrition in Germany. Edgar Peiter and Stefanie Höller are currently serving as president and manager, respectively.

18 March 2021
Open Letter: The importance of Plant Science to solve the trilemma of land use
In its recent assessment “Rethinking Land in the Anthropocene: from Separation to Integration”   , the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) has proposed a comprehensive set of solutions to solve the “trilemma of land use”, i.e. reaching the targets of climate-change mitigation, avert the dramatic loss of biodiversity, and make the global food system sustainable. Unfortunately, plant science, including novel methods of crop improvement, is not viewed as part of the solution in this assessment. In an open letter to the federal ministers of the environment (Svenja Schulze), and education and research (Anja Karliczek), a number of plant science institutions and societies, including the German Society of Plant Nutrition   , address this critical shortcoming. They stress the importance of plant science and novel plant breeding approaches in the development of a sustainable agriculture, and they offer to contribute their expertise in plant and crop science. Click here to read the open letter (pdf).   

12 March 2021
Review on calcium and manganese in organelles
Calcium and manganese are essential elements for plants and have physicochemical similarities. They are assigned specific functions within cellular compartments, but share many transport mechanisms across cellular membranes. Despite the points of interaction, those elements are usually investigated separately. Our latest review, to which a number of lab members contributed, takes calcium and manganese out of this isolation. It highlights our current mechanistic understanding, and points to open questions, of their functions, their transport, and their interplay in all organelles of the plant cell. Mechanisms in animals and yeast are taken into account where they may provide a blueprint for processes in plants. The article is published in Plant Physiology and can be accessed here.   

14 February 2021
Paper on a new player in systemic calcium signalling
Plants respond to wounding and insect attack with a rise in their internal calcium concentration. These „calcium signals“ propagate throughout the plant and inform yet intact plant parts of the stress, so that the entire plant can launch defense responses. It is not well understood how those calcium signals are produced. The protein Annexin1 has been known to exhibit calcium channel activity. A new study, led by Axel Mithöfer at the MPI for Chemical Ecology in Jena, with calcium imaging experiments from our lab, shows that Annexin1 is an important player in the plant’s defense responses. Plant devoid of Annexin1 were defective in the generation of systemic calcium signals, had a dimished hormone response, and did not fend off attacking insects. The article is published in New Phytologist and can be accessed here   .

2020

December 2020
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Peiter lab wishes to all its members, alumni, students, and friends a peaceful Christmas and all the very best for 2021 - including the defeat of a spiky intruder that currently wreaks havoc everywhere.

17 November 2020
New microscope!
Our fancy new AxioZoom fluorescence zoom microscope has been installed today. Owing to its high aperture, the fast switching filters, and its super sensitive Hamamatsu Orca Flash sCMOS camera, this system will propel our capabilities of mesoscopic fluorescence imaging, for example of systemically spreading calcium signals in plants.

1 October 2020
Benvenuto Lorenzo!
Today, Lorenzo Massini has arrived from Italy for a lab internship. Lorenzo is a graduate student of Plant Biotechnology at the University of Turin and will join our postdoc Santiago to reveal mechanisms of manganese efficiency and transport in plants.

1 October 2020
Welcome Srijana!
Today, Srijana Rai started her PhD in our lab. Srijana previously obtained an MSc in Plant Science at the University of Bonn, where she worked on a dessication-tolerant plant in the lab of Dorothea Bartels. In her PhD project, Srijana will study how plants generate systemic calcium signals, that propagate in waves through the plant and thereby inform the whole plant body about looming disasters.

13 July 2020
Congratulations, Dr Maaß!
Today Victoria Maaß (née Kiep) very successfully defended her PhD thesis on the establishment of a plant-based system for identifying phytoeffectors and the analysis of phytoeffector targets under abiotic stress. Her project was part of the thriving associated institute Agrochemisches Institut Piesteritz. Victoria now works as crop production specialist in an agricultural extension service association   . We wish Vicky all the very best for the future and say a big Thank You for her contributions to our lab.

07 July 2020
Congratulations, Dr Zimmermann!
Today  Nancy Zimmermann (née Nowak) very successfully defended her PhD thesis  on the impact of the polyamine spermine on calcium signals and drought  responses in barley. Her project was part of the fruitful IZN consortium. Nancy has already joined the Plant Physiology group,  where she supports teaching and research on stress responses and  senescence of barley and Arabidopsis. We wish Nancy all the very best  for the future and say a big Thank You for her contributions to our lab.

26 March 2020
Review on manganese in plants
In  plants,  manganese is of extraordinary importance for photosynthesis,  and also  crucial for other important biochemical reactions, including  oxidative  stress defense. All those reactions take place in specific  cellular  compartments and different parts of the plant. Many transport  proteins,  belonging to diverse proteins families, have been identified  in a  number of plant species to translocate manganese from soil to its   targets. In this review, we provide an extensive overview of all aspects   related with the acquisition and distribution of manganese in plants,   as well as a compilation of the roles of manganese in plants described   so far. We particularly focus on the allocation of manganese on  cellular  and subcellular level. This topic is very timely because the  picture of  plant manganese transport is still rather sketchy and  requires an  inventory of what we know and which steps are still  unresolved. This  compilation of our current knowledge on manganese  transport will be a  very useful tool for scientists and researchers in  the field of plant  nutrition, as well as in other disciplines. The  review is published in  Frontiers in Plant Science and can be accessed here   .

24-25 February 2020
Talk at Plant Nutrition Meeting
Edgar Peiter presented a talk on manganese transport in plants at the 4^th Plant Nutrition, Growth & Environment Interactions meeting at Vienna, Austria.

21-22 February 2020
Talk at Plant Physiology Meeting
Stefanie Höller presented a talk on the roles of CDF transporters in plants at the 18^th Central German Plant Physiology Conference at Jena.

28 January 2020
Review on calcium transport in fungi
Calcium is a universal signalling element in all organisms, including fungi. It is essential for development as well as for the initiation of responses to environmental cues. The maintenance of calcium homeostasis and the generation of calcium signals relies on a set of calcium transport proteins: channels, transporters, and pumps. The physiological roles of these proteins have been mainly investigated in some model species, such as baker's yeast, and are believed to be largely similar in all fungi. This assumption is questioned in a new review article, in which a comparative survey of mutant phenotypes of known calcium transport proteins in a wide range of fungi was undertaken. This approach revealed that the involvement of some calcium transport proteins in growth and stress resistance differs widely between fungal species, while the roles of others are more conserved. This calls for a cautious use of the “seen one, seen them all” principle and for mechanistic studies in non-model species. Our survey demonstrates that components of the calcium signalling toolbox may be employed differently in different, but related, organisms and that results may not always be extrapolated from one fungal species to another. The review is based on the dissertation of Mario Lange, a former PhD student in our lab. It is published in Frontiers in Microbiology and can be accessed here   .

17 January 2020
Talk in Bonn
Edgar Peiter presented a seminar on our work on calcium transport and signalling in the Botanical Colloquium of the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany at University of Bonn.

2019

1 October 2019
Welcome (again), Nico!
Today, Nico Rössner started his PhD within the DFG Research Training Group 2498, which focuses on plant organellar interactions. Nico has just obtained his MSc in Crop Science, where he worked on calcium transport proteins in leguminous root nodules. In his PhD project, Nico will uncover how vesicular compartments impact on cellular calcium dynamics and signalling. Exciting times ahead!

25-27 September 2019
Participation (and another poster price!) at Plant Nutrition conference
Nine of us went to this year's International Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition at Berlin. Stefanie Höller gave a talk covering our work on manganese transporters, and we also presented four posters. The poster "A Golgi-localized cation transporter crucial for plant performance under limiting manganese supply" by Jie He, Bastian Meier, Stefanie Höller, Jane Gohlisch, Anja Janssen, Tina Peiter-Volk, and Edgar Peiter won the third prize at the posters awards. Congratulations to Jie for her second hit!

31 July 2019
Good bye (for now), Heidrun!
Today, Dr. Heidrun Beschow entered her well-deserved retirement from her position as Lecturer ("wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin") in our group. Heidrun started her work in our lab, then called the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition and led by the late Prof. Günther Schilling, in 1984. She intially worked on plant growth regulators, nitrogen fixation, and source-sink relationships, and later led the establishment of plant transformation techniques in our lab. Her undergraduate and graduate courses contributed very significantly to the teaching portfolio of our group and were in great demand by students of both agriculture and nutrition. Heidrun took care of the safety in the lab, she was in charge of analytical techniques, and she enthusiastically organized local and international conferences. We thank Heidrun wholeheartedly for her great dedication and enduring helpfulness that helped to create our supportive lab atmosphere, and we wish her all the very best for the future. Last but not least, we and the students are very happy that Heidrun will continue to support us as associated lecturer.

7-12 July 2019
Participation (and a poster price!) at Plant Membrane Biology conference
We presented three posters at the 18th International Workshop on Plant Membrane Biology (IWPMB 2019), which was held at Glasgow (UK). Our poster "A Golgi-localized cation transporter crucial for plant performance under limiting manganese supply" by Jie He, Bastian Meier, Stefanie Höller, Jane Gohlisch, Anja Janssen, Tina Peiter-Volk, and Edgar Peiter was awarded a prize of the best posters. Congratulations to Jie for her very catchy presentation of the exciting data!

4 July 2019
Welcome, Julia!
Today, Julia Rödiger started as our new office administrator. She has just successfully completed her apprenticeship and already organized our next lab outing :-). Julia will be in charge of finances, personnel, purchasing, and many other organizational matters that are all indispensable to keep the lab up and running.

31 May 2019
Good bye, Marion!
Today, Marion Müller entered her well-deserved retirement from her position as secretary of our group. Marion joined the Plant Nutrition Lab in 2008 and played a central part in running the group and in all organizational matters. In her very supportive and passionate manner, she always managed to find a way through the jungle of increasingly complicated formalities imposed by administration and funding agencies. Her office was an inexhaustible source of everything ever needed. We thank Marion wholeheartedly for her great dedication and perpetual helpfulness. We wish her all the very best for the future and a happy retirement.

13 May 2019
Congratulations, Dr Rissel!
Today Dagmar Rissel very successfully defended her comprehensive PhD thesis on the functional characterization of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases in stress responses and seed germination. Dagmar is now active at the Julius Kühn Institute at Braunschweig, where she established a molecular biology lab in the herbology department. We wish her all the very best for the future and say a big Thank You for all her contributions to our lab.

12 April 2019
Participation at Tri-National Arabidopsis Meeting
Stefanie Höller and Bastian Meier presented two posters at the 11th Tri-National Arabidopsis Meeting, which was held in Zurich (Switzerland).

02 April 2019
Review on Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases in plants
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) are proteins that transfer ADP-ribose units onto target proteins to activate DNA damage responses and other cellular processes. In plants, PARPs have been linked to abiotic and biotic stress responses. However, reports have been inconsistent, and the effects of PARP inhibitors appear to be more robust than the genetic abolition of PARP gene expression. In a comprehensive review article published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, we critically summarize our current understanding of poly(ADP-ribosylation) and PARP proteins in plants. We highlight similarities and differences to human PARPs, areas of controversy, and requirements for future studies. The review is based on the dissertation of Dagmar Rissel, a finalising PhD student in our lab. It is available online and can be accessed here   .

1 April 2019
Welcome again, Bastian!
Today, Dr. Bastian Meier was appointed as Lecturer ("wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter") in our group. Bastian obtained his PhD on manganese transport in plants, and recently worked on calcium signalling in nitrogen nutrition. Bastian will be establish undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes, conduct and supervise research projects, and act as lab manager.

31 March 2019
Good bye, Wolfgang!
Today, Dr. Wolfgang Gans entered his well-deserved retirement from his position as Lecturer ("wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter") in our group. Wolfgang started his work in our lab, then called the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition and led by the late Prof. Günther Schilling, in 1986. He initially worked on plant growth regulators and later extended his focus to problems of trace gas emissions from agricultural soils and to the long-term fertilization experiments of our lab. His undergraduate and graduate courses contributed very significantly to the teaching portfolio of our group and were in great demand by the students. Besides teaching and research, Wolfgang was in charge of many administrative and organisational matters, and he was central to the (re-)establishment and functioning of the lab. We thank Wolfgang wholeheartedly for his great dedication and enduring helpfulness that helped to create our supportive lab atmosphere, and we wish him all the very best for the future.

14 March 2019
Paper on biofortification of barley grains
Diets based mainly on cereal grains are inherently low in mineral elements essential for human nutrition, such as iron or zinc. Globally, this causes the so-called hidden hunger in large populations, particularly in poorer countries. Increasing grain yields further lead to a reduction of mineral nutrient concentrations. In collaboration with the James Hutton Institute (UK), M. Wiegmann, A. Maurer, and K. Pillen of the Plant Breeding group used a nested association mapping population to assess the potential of wild barley as genetic ressource for biofortification. Generally, the study revealed negative correlations between yield and nutrient concentrations in this material, and wild alleles were frequently associated with higher nutrient concentrations. The targeted introgression of wild barley alleles may enable biofortification in future barley breeding. We contributed our expertise to this promising study, which is published in the Journal Plant Science. It is available online and can be accessed here   .

12 March 2019
Talk in York (UK)
Edgar Peiter presented a seminar on our work on calcium transport and signalling in the departmental seminar of the Biology Department at the University of York (UK).

07 March 2019
Paper on pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Senecio vulgaris
The contamination of phytopharmaceuticals and herbal teas with toxic plants is an increasing problem. Senecio vulgaris is a particularly noxious weed in agricultural and horticultural crops due to its content of toxic and carcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). The occurrence of PAs in this plant as related to the plant's developmental stage and the season was analysed in a systematic field-plot study. This showed that PA concentrations are fairly stable. Hence, the total PA amounts increased strongly during development due to increasing plant biomass, and even small numbers of S. vulgaris may cause critical contaminations as defined by the maximal permitted daily intake levels recommended by the European Food Safety Authority. The study was carried out within the MSc Thesis project of Jens Flade and jointly supervised by Heidrun Beschow and Wim Wätjen (Biofunctionality of Secondary Plant Compounds group at the Institute). The paper is published in the Journal Plants. It is available online and can be accessed here   .

01 March 2019
New Equipment: MP-AES
Today a Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscope has been installed in our lab, which will strengthen our capabilities to determine elemental concentrations in plant and soil samples with high throughput.

25 February 2019
Congratulations, Dr Meier!
Today Bastian Meier very successfully defended his comprehensive PhD thesis on the functional characterization of a Cation Diffusion Facilitator in Arabidopsis. We thank Bastian for this nice piece of work, and for all his support and cheerfulness that truely shape our lab. We wish Bastian all the very best for the future (not only) in plant nutrition!

---

2018

28 November 2018
Talk in Cardiff (UK)
Edgar Peiter presented a seminar on our work on calcium transport and signalling in the departmental seminar of the School of Biosciences at the University of Cardiff (UK).

5 November 2018
Congratulations, Dr Happeck!
Today Ricardo Happeck very successfully defended his dogma-changing PhD thesis "Funktionelle Charakterisierung von Mitgliedern einer Süßgras-spezifischen Familie von Kationentransportern aus Weizen und Gerste". We are very grateful for the great efforts Ricardo invested in his project and for his involvement in the lab, and we wish him all the very best for the future!

13-14 September 2018
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
We presented four posters at this year's Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition, which was held at Osnabrück (Germany). The poster "A CDF transporter determines metal translocation and redistribution in Arabidopsis thaliana under deficiency and resupply" by Stefanie Höller, Bastian Meier, Ana Mijovilovich, Hendrik Küpper, and Edgar Peiter was awarded the prize of the best poster. Congratulations!

13 September 2018
New chairman and managing director of German Society of Plant Nutrition [Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pflanzenernährung, DPG   ]
At its annual general assembly, the German Society of Plant Nutrition (www.pflanzenernaehrung.org/homeenglish.html   ) elected Edgar Peiter, head of the Halle Plant Nutrition Laboratory, as chairman from 1 January 2019. Stefanie Höller, member of the Peiter lab, has been elected as the upcoming managing director of the Society. In times of intensive and often uninformed public and political debates on issues of agricultural plant nutrition, such as nitrate contaminations, greenhouse gas emissions, and biotechnologial crop improvement, the German Society of Plant Nutrition faces the important task to inform about scientific facts and misconceptions, as well as to connect scientists in the field and to foster the upcoming generation of plant nutritionists.

5 September 2018
Paper on calcium transporters in chloroplast
Photosynthesis, taking place in the chloroplasts of plants, is the process which enables plants to convert solar energy into organic matter and which produces the oxygen that supports aerobic life on earth. Calcium has been known to regulate numerous chloroplast proteins and is hence likely to govern photosynthetic reactions. However, neither the mechanisms that generate changes in chloroplast calcium concentrations nor their implications have been understood. In collaboration with Sacha Baginsky (Plant Biochemistry at MLU), we have identified calcium transporters that act in chloroplast membranes and show that they mediate the generation of calcium signals in chloroplasts. Plants lacking those transporters are severely defective in photosynthesis and consequently in growth. The bulk of experiments of this study was performed by Julia Frank (who constantly commuted between our and Sacha's labs ;-)). The group of Pierre Morsomme (UCL Louvain-la-Neuve) and Gerd Hause (Biocentre of the University), as well as members of our groups contributed essential experiments to this work, which is published in New Phytologist and which can be accessed here   .

A press release by the University (in German) can be found here.

24 August 2018
Paper on soil phosphate analysis
The application of the optimum amount of phosphate (P) to fields is important to avoid over-fertilization and eutrophication, while ensuring crop yield and quality. For this purpose, the P status of farmer's soils is regularly analysed, on which the fertilization requirement is based. Two different standard extraction procedures are employed in different regions of Germany, but there has not been a validated transformation procedure. This uncertainty has impeded a direct comparison of the P fertility status and P fertilizer recommendations across Germany. In a study led by Michael van Laak and Uwe Buczko at the University of Rostock, the comparability of both extraction methods was assessed, and regression equations to transform results of both methods were derived. We contributed data sets from a long-term field experiment on P fertilization that has been running since 1949 to this study, which is published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. It is available online and can be accessed here   .

9-13 July 2018
Participation at International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants
Edgar Peiter gave a talk on our work on manganese transport and manganese-iron interactions at the 19th ISINIP conference, which was held in Taipei (Taiwan).

28 June 2018
Lab outing
A day of archeology instead of plants: Today we explored some of the amazing history of Sachsen-Anhalt – the Nebra Sky Disk excavation site and the castle of Querfurt.

01 June 2018
Modifying phytohormone signalling to improve sugarcane yield
Sugarcane contributes more than 70% of sugar production worldwide and is a main source for renewable energy. However, despite extensive breeding, progress in improving cane yield and sugar content have been very slow. A new study tested an approach to modify signalling proteins of the phytohormone gibberellin. Transgenic sugar cane plants were strongly altered in growth , development, and metabolites, which demonstrates the  potential of this approach to increase yields. The study was led by Rafael Tavares in the lab of Marcelo Menossi (University of Campinas, Brasil), who has worked as visiting PhD student in our lab. The work is published in the Journal of Experimental Botany and can be accessed here   .

01 June 2018
Tomatoes feel the heat
High temperature is stressful for plants and a serious threat for crop production. It is therefore important to understand how plants adapt to high-temperature stress. A new study on tomato identified a MAP kinase as crucial regulator of responses to heat and pointed to its mode of action. The study was led by Haidong Ding at Yangzhou University (China), who has worked as a visiting research fellow in our lab, with major contributions by Jie He, who is now a PhD student in our lab. The work is published in Plant Physiology and can be accessed here   .

25 May 2018
Talks in China
In the last two weeks, Edgar Peiter presented our work at Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), China Agricultural University (CAU, Beijing), and Northwest A&F University (NWAFU, Yangling).

02 May 2018
স্বাগতম (Welcome) Kabir!
Today Kabir has arrived from Bangladesh. He will work with us for three months on mechanisms of manganese efficiency in plants.

05 March 2018
Arabidopsis meets long-term experiments: Paper on  responses of root microbial populations to phosphorus fertilization
Plant roots harbour a rich microbial population, which can improve the ability of the plant to acquire nutrients, in particular phosphate. This provokes the question how the nutrient availability alters the root-associated microbiome. Our lab operates a long-term field experiment on phosphorus fertilization that has been running since 1949. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research has grown Arabidopsis plants in soil from this field experiment and examined the microbial populations in roots, rhizosphere, and bulk soil at different phosphorus supply levels. Interestingly, both bacterial and fungal communities remained unexpectedly unaffected by phosphate fertilization, and only minor changes were observed in root-associated microbes. These findings demonstrate a resilience of soil microbiomes and contrast earlier studies that did not take into account long-term effects of phosphorus availability. The study was led by Chanz Robbins and Stijn Spaepen in the lab of Paul Schulze-Lefert at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and is published in Phytobiomes. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

14 February 2018
Review on trace metal metabolism in plants
Trace metals (copper, iron, manganese, nickel, zinc) play many essential roles in plants, but are toxic at high concentrations. Hence, suboptimal or excessive availabilitiy lead to deficiency or toxicity symptoms, respectively, and both conditions cause a decreased plant growth. We have contributed to a comprehensive overview of this vast and important research field, which is now published as Darwin Review in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The review, which is led by our colleague Hendrik Küpper (Ceske Budejowice, CZ), covers uptake, transport, and functions of metals, as well as strategies against non-optimal metal nutrition. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

09-10 February 2018
Talks at Plant Physiology Meeting
Bastian Meier and Santiago Alejandro presented talks on nitrogen-calcium interactions and on manganese transport at the 16^th Central German Plant Physiology Conference at Dresden.

06 February 2018
Talk at University of Jena
Edgar Peiter gave a talk on our research on cation transporters at the Botanical Colloquium of the University of Jena.

02 January 2018
Xin chào Minh!
Today Minh Hoang has started as postdoc in our lab. Her project will focus on cation transporters in chloroplasts. Minh has worked before on ascorbate transport and iron nutrition of plants at Montpellier.

---

2017

20 November 2017
Paper on yield responses to phosphorus fertilization
Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, and excessive P fertilization can lead to environmental problems. Our lab operates a long-term field experiment on phosphorus fertilization that has been running since 1949. We contributed data sets from this experiment to a large-scale meta analysis that identifed soil parameters determining the effectiveness of P fertilization. The study was led by Uwe Buczko and Michael van Laak at the Department of Landscape Ecology and Site Evaluation of the University of Rostock and is published in Ambio. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

23 October 2017
Congratulations Dr Khan!
Today Nufaid Khan successfully defended his PhD thesis "Polyamines and Calcium Signalling in Drought Tolerance of Arabidopsis and Barley". Nufaid will return to Pakistan in November to continue his scientific carrer. We wish him all the best for the future!

5-7 September 2017
Participation at Plant Calcium Signalling conference
Edgar Peiter gave a talk on calcium signalling in biotic interactions at the PCS 2017 conference, which was held in Norwich (UK).

1 September 2017
Welcome (again) Claudia!
Today Claudia Schlindwein started her PhD project in which she aims to improve our understanding of systemic calcium signalling in plants. Claudia got an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and graduated in Crop Science at Halle. She recently finished her MSc thesis in our lab on calcium transporters in root nodules. Her PhD project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

19-24 August 2017
Participation at International Plant Nutrition Colloquium
Stefanie Höller presented a poster on manganese and iron allocation in seeds at the 18^th IPNC, which was held in Copenhagen (Denmark). Edgar Peiter gave a talk  on the role of CDF proteins in manganese transport at the Manganese  Satellite Meeting of the conference.

10 August 2017
Talk at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Edgar Peiter gave a talk on calcium signalling in biotic interactions at the Institute Seminar of the MPI-CE in Jena.

29 June 2017
Paper on manganese and iron in seeds
Metal accumulation in seeds is important for their germination, but also for the supply of micronutrients to humans. However, the mechanisms by which manganese and iron are stored in seeds are still not fully understood. We found that the metal transporter MTP8, for which we identified before a pivotal role in roots of iron-deficient plants (see news of 15 December 2015), is also highly expressed in developing seeds. A combination of metal localization by synchrotron micro X-ray fluorescence and histochemical methods, expression of the gene in yeast, and physiological assays revealed that MTP8 determines the allocation of manganese to a sub-epidermal cell layer in the embryo, a function that is essential for germination if the mother plant suffers manganese deficiency. We further found that MTP8 also transports iron besides manganese, and that this function is required for iron reallocation during seed germination. Taken together, MTP8 is a major player in manganese and iron accumulation in seeds, and thus a promising tool in crop improvement. The study was a collaboration led by Nico von Wirén, Seckin Eroglu, and Ricardo Giehl at the IPK Gatersleben, with Hendrik Küpper and Elisa Andresen at the Czech Academy of Sciences, with Michiko Takahashi at Usunomiya University (Japan), with Yasuko Terada at the Spring-8 Synchrotron (Japan), and with Konstantin Ignatyev at the Diamond Syncrotron (UK). In our lab, Bastian Meier contributed to the exciting findings, which are published in the July issue of Plant Physiology. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

01 June 2017
Bienvenido Santiago!
Today Santiago Alejandro Martinez has started as postdoc in our lab. His project, which is part of a State Research Focus programme on the application of molecular biosciences, will focus on manganese efficiency of sugar beet. Santiago has previously worked on various aspects of plant signalling and transport at Valencia, Zurich, Montpellier, and Paris.

05-06 May 2017
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
Stefanie Höller gave a well-received talk on the role of the vacuolar metal transporter MTP8 in the allocation of iron and manganese in seeds at this year's Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition, which was held at Giessen (Germany). Isabel Diercks and Bastian Meier presented a poster on calcium signalling in nitrogen nutrition, which won the second price at the poster awards. Congratulations!

18 April 2017
Paper on method to characterize PARP proteins and inhibitors
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) have been implicated in responses of plants to DNA damage and numerous stresses, whereby the mechanistic basis of the interference is often unclear (see News on 6 February 2017). Therefore, the identification of specific inhibitors and potential interactors of plant PARPs is desirable. For this purpose, our PhD student Dagmar Rissel established an assay based on heterologous expression of PARP genes from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana in yeast. This assay provides a fast and simple means to identify target proteins and pharmacological inhibitors of AtPARP1. The paper is available online in Analytical Biochemistry and can be accessed here   .

06 February 2017
Paper on PARP genes and stress tolerance
Abiotic and biotic stress can have a detrimental impact on plant growth and productivity. Hence, there is a substantial demand for key factors of stress responses to improve yield stability of crops. Members of the poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) protein family, which post-translationally modify (PARylate) nuclear proteins, have previously been suggested as such universal determinants of plant stress responses. We tested this notion by subjecting mutant plants devoid of parp genes to drought, osmotic, salt, and oxidative stress. Surprisingly, parp mutant plants did not differ from wild type plants in any of these stress experiments. The parp mutant was also analyzed for callose formation in response to flagellin peptide, which signals the presence of a pathogen. Unexpectedly, callose formation was also unaltered in the mutant, albeit pharmacological PARP inhibition robustly blocked this immune response. Evidently, pharmacological inhibition appears to be more robust than the abolition of all PARP genes, indicating the presence of so-far undescribed proteins with PARP activity. This was supported by the finding that protein PARylation was not absent, but even increased in the parp mutant. Candidates for novel PARP-inhibitor targets may be found in the SRO protein family. These proteins harbor a catalytic PARP-like domain and are centrally involved in stress responses. Molecular modeling analyses indeed indicated a capability of two SRO proteins to bind PARP inhibitors. Collectively, the results of our study suggest that the stress-related phenotypes of parp mutants are highly conditional, and they call for a reconsideration of PARP inhibitor effects. The study was a collaboration with Peter Paul Heym and Wolfgang Brand at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, who performed the molecular modelling analysis. In our lab, PhD student Dagmar Rissel conducted the experiments. The work was co-funded by the Federal State of Sachsen-Anhalt and Agrochemisches Institut Piesteritz. The paper is published in Frontiers in Plant Science and can be accessed here   .

---

2016

28 November 2016
Congratulations Dr Lange!
Today, Mario Lange defended his PhD thesis "Calcium signal generation and Transient Receptor Potential channel homologues in the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola" with great success. Mario has already started a new position in molecular diagnostics. We wish him all the best for the future and say a big Thank You for his enthusiastic contributions to the lab.

12 November 2016
Paper on spore formation by mycorrhizal fungus and new method of mycorrhizal inoculum production
Mycorrhizal fungi can contribute to the nutrient supply of plants, in particular with phosphate. To increase mycorrhizal colonization of agricultural and horticultural crops, plants can be inoculated with spores and hyphae of the mycorrhizal fungus. However, production of the inoculum is often inefficient, and separation of the fungus from the mineral growth substrate is difficult. Experiments conducted by former external PhD student Anja Müller at the Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops revealed that mycorrhizal fungi deposit large amounts of spores and vesicles in dead root material ("trap roots"), which provides a means to generate fungal inoculum free of mineral substrates. Such trap root mats are available from large-scale hydroponic cultures that are common in horticulture. The paper, which is published in Mycorrhiza, is available online and can be accessed here   .

1 November 2016
Welcome Steffi!
Today Stefanie Höller has started as postdoc in our lab. Stefanie has previously worked at the University of Bonn where she did a PhD on zinc deficiency and ascorbate metabolism in rice in the group of Michael Frei.

24 October 2016
Ni hao Jie He!
Today Jie He (aka. Tiffany) has arrived from Yangzhou, China. She will join us for four years to pursue a PhD on novel calcium transporters in plants.

28-30 September 2016
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
We presented six posters at this year's Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition, which was held at Hohenheim (Germany). The poster "Genome-wide identification of the CPK gene family in Medicago truncatula and its expression in nodules" by Claudia Schlindwein, Lisa Bischoff, Joachim Schulze, and Edgar Peiter was awarded a prize of the three best posters. Congratulations!

31 August 2016
Commentary on calcium and ROS waves in plants
Not only animals, but also plants operate rapid systemic signalling mechanisms that convey information about a localized stress or attack to other, yet unaffected, parts of the plant, so that they can prepare for the potential spread of the challenge. In the current issue of Plant Physiology, Edgar Peiter comments on an elegant study of the Gilroy and Morris labs, who combined wet-lab research and mathematical modelling to demonstrate an inherent linkage of two second messengers, calcium and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in this "systemic signalling" machinery. The commentary is available online and can be accessed here   .

30 June 2016
Paper on calcium channels in fungi
Calcium is a central component in the response of all organisms to their environment. Calcium signals in the cytosol, i.e. the cell sap, are initiated by the activation of calcium channel proteins in the outer cell membrane and/or in endomembranes. The model organism yeast contains a calcium-permeable channel of the TRP family, TRPY1, which is localized in the vacuolar membrane and contributes to cytosolic calcium elevations, for example in response to osmotic upshock. A TRPY1 homologue in the rice blast fungus is known to be important for growth and pathogenicity. To determine the role of the TRP channel family in the devastating maize pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola, proteins homologous to TRPY1 were searched. This identified not one, but four genes in the C. graminicola genome, which we named CgTRPFs, and which were all expressed throughout the infection of maize. Like TRPY1, all TRPF proteins of C. graminicola were localized intracellularly. Deletion strains for the CgTRPF genes were not altered in processes thought to involve calcium release from internal stores, i.e. spore germination, the utilization of complex carbon sources, and the generation of tip-focussed calcium spikes (see news on 13 April 2016). Heterologous expression of the CgTRPFs in a yeast mutant revealed that none of the channels mediated the release of calcium in response to osmotic upshock. Accordingly, calcium measurements of C. graminicola showed that in this fungus, osmotic upshock-triggered calcium elevations were generated entirely by influx of calcium from the extracellular space. Cgtrpf mutants did not show pathogenicity defects in leaf infection assays. In summary, our study reveals major differences between different fungi in the contribution of TRP channels to calcium-mediated signal transduction. The experiments were performed by our PhD student Mario Lange in collaboration with our neighbours, the phytopathology lab; the project was part of a DFG Research Group (FOR666). The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

13 April 2016
Paper on calcium and growth of fungi
Regulation fluctuations in cytosolic free calcium are decisive for tip growth of certain plant cells, such as pollen tubes and root hairs. As hyphae of filamentous fungi also grow at their tip, we were interested in whether growth of these organisms is also determined by calcium oscillations. Determinations of calcium concentrations on single-hypha and on whole-colony level in combination with growth assays and a pharmacological survey showed that this is not the case. Instead irregular calcium spikes were observed, which are likely a response to micro-environmental parameters, such as the physical properties of the surface. The experiments were performed by our PhD student Mario Lange; the project was part of a DFG Research Group (FOR666). The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

15 February 2016
Paper on potassium and water shortage in long-term experiment
Both, potassium (K) deficiency and limited water supply can cause substantial yield losses. Albeit it is believed that an ample K nutrition alleviates the severity of drought stress, this relationship has not been studied extensively in the field. We analysed a long-term field experiment with K availability ranging from deficient to superfluous for the interaction between K supply and yield loss of five crop species (potato, wheat, barley, beet, maize) by water shortage. On the low-K plots, crops suffered yield depressions of nearly all main harvest products. A comparison of four year-pairs with differing levels of precipitation showed an average water shortage-induced depression of dry matter yields by 20%. Interestingly, the severity of this yield depression was not mitigated by elevated K supply, with the exception of beet leaves, where the dry matter production was stabilized by high K supply. In beet, the reduction of storage-root yield was associated with a decrease in harvest index and was therefore obviously caused by an inhibition of assimilate translocation from the leaves into these organs, in contrast to cereals, where water shortage primarily affected dry matter production in vegetative organs. It is concluded that the physiological causes of yield reduction by drought stress differ between plant species and that the possibilites to ameliorate drought effects by K supply are limited. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

13 January 2016
Paper on calcium signalling in yeast
Yeast is an excellent model organism which, like animals and plants, employs calcium as second messenger. A team of laboratories led by Linghuo Jiang (Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China) has now identified a novel regulator of cytosolic calcium homeostasis in yeast. In our lab, Ricardo Happeck and Tina Peiter-Volk contributed to this major advance, which has just been published in the European Journal of Cell Biology. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

---

2015

15 December 2015
Paper on iron-manganese interactions
It has been known for a long time that iron nutrition in plants is antagonistically affected by manganese, but the processes which are sensible to manganese and the way by which plants address this problem have remained unknown. In this paper, we identifiy iron chelate reduction as a critical manganese-sensitive step and the CDF transporter MTP8 as essential component mitigating the adverse effects of manganese on iron nutrition. We identified this pivotal role of MTP8 in iron nutrition by employing a new forward genetic screening approach that mimicked the conditions of low iron availability in calcareous soils. We further elucidated the causal relationships between iron nutrition and MTP8-mediated manganese sequestration by employing a broad range of molecular, cell biological, and analytical tools. This allowed us to define the primary function of MTP8, namely the safeguarding of the iron acquisition machinery under iron-limiting conditions in the presence of manganese, rather than the detoxification of manganese under conditions of absolute manganese toxicity. The general relevance of this mechanism is underlined by the hypersensitivity of mtp8 mutants to Fe deficiency chlorosis also on calcareous soil. Our findings are of broad interest to plant biologists, as we provide here a novel mechanistic view on how the management of an antagonistic element (Mn) warrants the tolerance to deficiency of another nutrient (Fe). Moreover, this study will also raise interest to researchers from the agricultural sector as it addresses a problem frequently reported in field studies. The study was a collaboration with Nico von Wirén (IPK Gatersleben) and his PhD student Seckin Eroglu, who first identifed the role of MTP8 in iron nutrition. In our lab, Bastian Meier contributed to the exciting findings, which are published in Plant Physiology. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

01-02 December 2015
Participation at Indo-German Workshop
Edgar Peiter participated at the workshop "Novel approaches to investigate signals and defenses in plant-biotic interactions" at New Delhi (India) which was jointly organized by NIPGR (Delhi) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. He presented a talk entitled "Coding the message: Generation and kinetics of calcium signals in biotic interactions".

17-18 September 2015
Participation at Plant Nutrition Conference
We presented three posters at this year's Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition, which was held at Göttingen (Germany). The poster "Phytoeffectors - the rescue from abiotic stress conditions?" by Victoria Kiep, Dagmar Rissel, Tina Peiter-Volk, Anja Janssen, and Edgar Peiter was awarded the prize for the best poster. Congratulations!

30 August - 03 September 2015
Participation at the Conference of the German Botanical Society
We presented a talk and two posters at the Conference of the German Botanical Society, which was held in Freising-Weihenstephan (Germany).

21 May 2015
Paper on systemic calcium signals after wounding and herbivory
Insect herbivory triggers an intricate signalling network in the plant that ultimately leads to the launch of defense responses. It is known that "calcium signals", i.e. the transient elevation of cytosolic free calcium, is a very early and essential response of the attacked plant. By monitoring cytosolic free calcium elevations in entire Arabidopsis rosettes using a high-resolution photon-counting camera system, we found that wounding and herbivory by caterpillars induced calcium signals not only in the attacked leaf, but also in non-attacked, "systemic" leaves. Systemic calcium signals were found predominantly in adjacent leaves with direct vascular connections to the treated leaf and appeared with a delay of 1 to 2 min. This systemic [Ca2+]cyt response was suppressed by the presence of insect-derived oral secretions as well as in a mutant of the vacuolar cation channel Two Pore Channel 1 (TPC1). The systemic calcium signal could play an important signalling role in systemic plant defense. The study was a collaboration with the group of Axel Mithöfer (MPI for Chemical Ecology, Jena). In our lab, Victoria Kiep, Justus Lattke, and Jan-Peter Maaß contributed to those exciting findings, which are published in the New Phytologist. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

---

2014

04 November 2014
A very warm Welcome to Linghuo!
Today Prof. Linghuo Jiang has arrived in our lab. Linghuo is an expert in yeast biotechnology and signalling at the School of Biotechnology of Jiangnan University in Wuxi (China). For the next three weeks, Linghuo will work on a novel regulator of calcium homeostasis that his lab has identified. In addition, we will elucidate further fields of collaboration between our institutions.

04 November 2014
Commentary in the New Phytologist
Our paper on the PAMP-triggered calcium signature (see 22 September 2014) is subject of a commentary by Prof. Allan Downie (JIC Norwich), which can be accessed here   .

22 September 2014
Paper on PAMP-induced calcium signals in stomatal guard cells published
Changes in cytosolic free calcium are an early and essential element of signalling networks activated by the perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as flg22. The flg22-induced calcium signal has been described on whole-plant, but not on single-cell scale so far. Also, the calcium sources and channels contributing to its generation are still obscure. Ratiometric fluorescence imaging employing the calcium reporter Yellow Cameleon 3.6 was performed to analyse the flg22-induced calcium signature in single guard cells of Arabidopsis thaliana. Calcium stores and channel types involved in its generation were determined by a pharmacological approach. In contrast to the calcium signal determined on whole-plant level, the signature on single-cell level is not characterized by one sustained response, but by oscillations in cytosolic free calcium. Our analyses suggest that the response observed on whole-plant level is the summary of oscillations occurring in single cells. Parallel to external calcium, influx via channels located at internal stores contributes to the signal. The study was conducted by our senior postdoc Kathrin Thor and is published in New Phytologist. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

10-12 September 2014
International Conference organized - Plant Nutrition 2014
From 10 to 12 September, the biannual International Conference of the German Society of Plant Nutrition was held on the Heide-Süd Campus of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. The German Society of Plant Nutrition (DGP) is the professional organization in Germany that brings together scientists from all areas of Plant Nutrition. This scope is reflected in the International Conference series of the DGP. This year's meeting aimed to forge a bridge from basic research on molecular and physiological mechanisms, as well as plant-soil interactions, to practical applications in crop improvement and fertilization. Topical sessions focussed on root development and function, nutrient and stress signalling, micronutrients, soil fertility and fertilization, and plant senescence and nutrient retranslocation. The meeting was framed by opening and closing lectures that provided perspectives on current and future challenges in plant nutrition research. The conference would not have been possible without the enthusiastic commitment of the local organizing committee members and the generous support of our donors, to all of whom we are very grateful.

06-10 July 2014
Participation at International Meeting
We presented two posters at the 17th International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants (ISINIP), which was held on the campus of the Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics & Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben (Germany).

22-26 June 2014
Participation at International Meeting
We presented a talk and four posters at the Plant Calcium Signaling conference (PCS 2014), which was held in Münster (Germany).

13 May 2014
Method featured in "Laborjournal"
Our recently published improvement in the cultivation of filamentous fungi (see 04 April 2014) is featured in this month's issue of the lab magazine Laborjournal. The article is freely available here   .

03 May 2014
New plasmid system for co-localization and bimolecular fluorescence complementation published
Today a paper describing a new system to transform fungi simultaneously with two tagged genes has been published in Current Genetics. The work is part of a DFG-funded project on calcium signalling in a fungal phytopathogen. The system was developed by our PhD student Mario Lange and adapted for BiFC by Ely Oliveira-Garcia of our Phytopathology lab. The paper is available online and can be accessed here     .

04 April 2014
New method to cultivate filamentous fungi published
Today a paper describing a new approach to cultivate filamentous fungi on solid media for RNA extraction and pharmacological analyses has been published in Analytical Biochemistry. The work is part of a DFG-funded project on calcium signalling in a fungal phytopathogen. The technique was developed by our PhD student Mario Lange and his MSc student Carolin Müller. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

18 February 2014
Ni hao Haidong!
Dr Haidong Ding, a visiting scholar from Yangzhou University, China, has arrived today. Haidong obtained an Overseas Scholarship by the Jiangsu Provincial Government to do research in our lab for one year. He has previously worked in the areas of plant stress physiology and molecular biology and will join our efforts to unravel mechanisms of calcium signalling in plants.

17 February 2014
New publication on genome repair in seeds
Today a paper on the role of a nuclear protein, PARP3, in the agronomically important trait of seed storability has been published in Plant Biology. The experiments were conducted by our PhD student Dagmar Rissel with the support of her project student Judith Losch. The paper is available online and can be accessed here   .

---

2013

16 December 2013
Congratulations Xuefeng!
Today Xuefeng Gong successfully defended her PhD thesis "Characterization of putative RCK domain channel proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana". Xuefeng will return to China in January. We wish her all the best for her future endeavours. A big Thank You to everybody who has helped and supported Xuefeng throughout the four years that she worked in our lab.

18 October 2013
Newspaper article
Increasing the yield stability of crops through an enhanced stress resistance is an important goal of our research. Our work on stress tolerance of barley and Arabidopsis has been covered today in the newspaper "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung"   . The barley projects are part of the Interdisciplinary Centre of Crop Research (IZN); the Arabidopsis projects are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)   .

17 October 2013
Review on potassium
A paper on the important role of potassium in agriculture has just been published in the Journal of Plant Physiology. The review summarizes factors determining the plant availability of soil potassium, the role of potassium in crop yield formation and product quality, and the dependence of crop stress resistance on potassium nutrition. The paper has been jointly written by Christian Zörb (University of Leipzig), Mehmet Senbayram (University of Göttingen) and Edgar Peiter (MLU Halle-Wittenberg). It is available online now and can be accessed here   .

22 August 2013
Participation and Poster Price at International Meeting
We presented three posters at the XVII International Plant Nutrition Colloquium (IPNC) which was held in Istanbul (Turkey):
Meier, B., Kirsten, A., Fierlbeck, L., Nies, D., Mustroph, A., Peiter, E.
A vascular manganese and iron transporter required for submergence tolerance of Arabidopsis.
Happeck, R. , Köhler, K. , Rech, J. , Freitag, L. , von Wirén, N., Peiter, E.
A newly identified gene from barley alters calcium signals and increases the sensitivity of yeast to sodium and lithium .
Eroğlu, S., Meier, B., von Wirén, N., Peiter, E.
Characterization of a Mn transporter essential for Fe efficiency in Arabidopsis thaliana.
The contribution of Eroğlu et al. was awarded one of the five best-poster prizes. Congratulations to Seckin and Bastian!

22 July 2013
Masterarbeit von Mathias Krebs ausgezeichnet
Im Wettbewerb "Meister und Macher 2013" der Zeitschrift "top agrar" wurde die Masterarbeit unseres Studenten Mathias Krebs mit dem zweiten Preis in der Kategorie Ackerbau und Grünland ausgezeichnet. Die Arbeit trägt den Titel „Auswirkung verschiedener Arten der Gärrestapplikation auf die  Ammoniakverluste, den Ertrag und den Deckungsbeitrag bei Winterroggen,  Mais und Grünland“ und wurde durch Dr. Friedhelm Herbst und Dr. Wolfgang Gans betreut. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

23 April 2013
Paper on newly identified family of calcium transporters
Calcium is a ubiquitous and essential second messenger in all higher organisms; calcium signals are generated by the action of channels and transporters in cellular membranes. The contribution of internal calcium stores to this process is only poorly understood, in particular in non-animals. By identifying a novel transporter localized in the Golgi apparatus of yeast and humans as a regulator of calcium homeostasis, a team of laboratories led by Pierre Morsomme (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) has now made a significant progress in this area. The study has appeared in PNAS today, and we are very happy to having been able to contribute some of our expertise to this work.

Demaegd D, Foulquier F, Colinet A-S, Gremillon L, Legrand D, Mariot P, Peiter E, van Schaftingen E, Matthijs G, Morsomme P (2013). A newly characterized Golgi-localized family of proteins is involved in calcium and pH homeostasis in yeast and human cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110, 6859-6864.

01 April 2013
Welcome Nufaid!
Our new PhD student Nufaid Khan has arrived today. Nufaid did his undergraduate studies in Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and subsequently obtained an MPhil in Biotechnology from Forman Christian College University, Lahore. He successfully applied for a HEC fellowship to carry out his PhD on the involvement of calcium signalling in abiotic stress tolerance of crops.

04 February 2013
Welcome Rafael!
Today Rafael Garcia Tavares, a visiting PhD student from the State University of Campinas at São Paulo, Brazil, arrived in our lab. Rafael's project is concerned with gibberellin signalling in sugarcane. In the next few months he will work on protein interactions and study responses of gibberellin mutants.

---

2012

01 December 2012
Welcome (again) Victoria!
Today Victoria Kiep started her PhD project which aims at the improvement of crop stress tolerance. Victoria got her undergraduate degree in Agricultural Sciences and graduated in Crop Science at Halle. She just finished her MSc thesis in our lab on calcium signalling in plants. Her PhD project is funded by the Agrochemisches Institut Piesteritz (AIP) and part of a collaborative effort of the Institute of Biology at the MLU, the Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), SKW Piesteritz, and the Plant Nutrition Laboratory.

---

2011

03 August 2011
New BSc and MSc Modules
To intensify the practical training of undergraduate and graduate students in molecular techniques, we do now offer two additional research-focussed modules. A complete overview of our teaching programme can be found here.

01 April 2011
Congratulations and Welcome Jan!
Jan-Peter Maaß received a PhD scholarship funded by the State of Sachsen-Anhalt and has started his PhD project on calcium signalling in Arabidopsis today. Jan graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg.

11 March 2011
Review on vacuolar calcium signalling
A paper on the role of the plant vacuole as generator and decoder of calcium signals has been published in Cell Calcium. It is available online now and can be accessed here   .

1 January 2011
Welcome Martina!
Martina Fuhrmann has just joined our group as research technician supporting a BMELV-funded project on greenhouse gas release due to fermentation residue application.

---

2010

2 October 2010
Congratulations Bastian et al.!
The poster "Novel Manganese Transporters in Plants: Jacks of many trades" by Bastian Meier, Xi Chen, Annina Gwinner, Tina Peiter-Volk, Kristin Peter, and Edgar Peiter has won the 1st prize at the "Genetics of Plant Mineral Nutrition" Symposium at Hannover.

1 September 2010
Welcome Liane!
Liane Freitag has just joined our group as laboratory technician. Liane will support a range of practical teaching and research activities.

1 August 2010
Welcome Kristin!
Kristin Peter has just joined our group as research technician supporting a DFG-funded project on manganese homeostasis in plants.

01 June 2010
Welcome Nancy and Ricardo!
Ricardo Happeck and Nancy Nowak have just started their PhD projects on abiotic stress tolerance of barley. Their projects are carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Pharmacy (Prof B Dräger) and the IPK (Prof N von Wiren) and are part of the newly initatied Interdisciplinary Centre of Crop Research (IZN) funded by the State of Sachsen-Anhalt. Ricardo graduated in Biology at the Free University of Berlin; Nancy obtained her graduation in Biology from the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg.

01 March 2010
Welcome (again) Bastian!
Bastian Meier has started his DFG-funded PhD project, which is concerned with the characterization of a family of plant manganese transporters. Bastian graduated in Agricultural Sciences at Halle and just finished his Diploma project on manganese transport.

---

2009

16 November 2009
Welcome Xuefeng!
Xuefeng Gong, a graduate from Northwest Agricultural University, Yangling (China), has just started her CSC-funded PhD project on a family of ion channels believed to be involved in the generation of calcium signals.

16 October 2009
We have moved!
A couple of weeks ago our lab has moved into new purpose-built facilities on a campus-style terrain. After some spectacular transfer of the heavy weight equipment and loads of boxes, the lab is up and running again. We are now sharing a building with the Phytopathology and Plant Breeding groups, and are much closer to other plant biology, biochemistry and microscopy labs, which will facilitate joint research activities and foster communication.

01 July 2009
Welcome Mario!
Mario Lange has just start his PhD on calcium signalling in phytopathogenic fungi. The project is part of the DFG research group 666 "Mechanisms of compatibility" and will be carried out in close collaboration with the Phytopathology group at the Institute. Mario graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Leipzig.

14 May 2009
New imaging system in the lab
We have just installed a Photek HRPCS4 high resolution photon-counting camera system for time-resolved imaging of luminescence with single-photon sensitivity. The camera is fitted to a dark box containing a Peltier heated/cooled stage. The system will be used for the detection of calcium signals by aequorin luminescence, but is also suitable for luciferase assays and HRP-based Western blot analysis.

28 April 2009
New High Speed Ratio Imaging Microscope
We have just installed a Zeiss CellObserver HS system for high-speed ratio imaging of living cells. The system is comprised of a Zeiss AxioObserver D1 motorised microscope, Colibri LED and XBO light sources, a DualCam twin-camera option, and is operated by Axiovision Physiology software. The system will be used for the determination of calcium concentrations in living cells by ratio-imaging fluorescence microscopy.

Zum Seitenanfang