We focus on molecular dissection of genetic and epigenetic pathways that control sexual and asexual plant reproductive development. We use Arabidopsis (dicot), wheat and barley (monocot) as sexual model systems; Hypericum and Boechera (dicot), and parthenogenetic Salmon wheat (monocot) as apomictic systems.

Plant development is a recurrent process occurring in two distinct alternating generations, the sporophyte and the gametophyte. Plant gametes are contained in plant-specific haploid organisms known as the female (embryo sac) and male (pollen) gametophytes that are independently derived via meiotic reduction of the corresponding diploid spores. Fertilisation of haploid gametes (egg and sperm cells) leads to the development of the diploid embryo sporophyte. In flowering plants, there exists a second fertilization event wherein the second female gamete known as the homo-diploid central cell is fertilized by an additional haploid sperm cell, leading to the development of triploid endosperm that nourishes the embryo. After early embryogenesis, the seed matures via synthesis of storage compounds as well as acquisition of desiccation tolerance and dormancy. Subsequently, the mature seed germinate into the whole plant sporophyte.

 

While most plants reproduce sexually, some plant species in the wild reproduce asexually by a process known as apomixis. Both meiosis and egg fertilization are either avoided or circumvented during apomictic events such as apomeiosis and parthenogenesis, respectively; thereby, the offspring are the clonal replica of the mother plant. Molecular dissection of these coordinated developmental events of both sexual and asexual plant reproduction is not only an exciting basic aspect in biology; it gives important information required for biotechnological applications such as food technology (e.g. cereal endosperm) and transfer of elite crop traits like heterosis via apomixis.

 

There are six major research areas that we pursue, and we are also involved in several other sub-projects in collaboration with partner labs.

We are funded by the IPK, German Research Foundation (DfG), German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). We extensively collaborate with several work groups within IPK; and with researchers at University of Halle; ETH Zürich, Switzerland; NIBB, Japan; University of Zürich, Switzerland; CSIRO, Australia; and University of Padua and CNR in Italy.