|
10 Sep 2008
Unit:
Wageningen University
Number:
059
Growing plants as biomass for the production of energy disregards their function as producers of many high-value substances that we cannot make directly in the laboratory or the factory. Biologists should want to know more about the functions of these substances in order to use this knowledge in nutrition, medicine or for the immune system of plants. This was the theme of the speech given by Prof. dr. Linus van de Plas upon his retirement as Professor of Plant Physiology at Wageningen University on Thursday, 11 September 2008.
In the 20 years that he has worked at Wageningen University, Van de Plas experienced a fascinating time in his field. In his farewell address, “… Wat groeit en bloeit en nog altijd boeit….” (...what grows and blooms and still fascinates ...) he provided an overview of the enormous developments in knowledge surrounding the question of ‘how do plants work?’ Answering this question is still the ultimate aim of every plant biologist, where it is important to maintain the connection with what you see outdoors in nature, he believes. This certainly applies to himself, where his sense of wonder about everything plants are capable of doing is continually being 'refreshed'. Because plants are bound to a fixed location, they have a fantastic range of responses available to react to things that happen to them, from harsh winters, dry summers and floods, to passing plant eaters such as snails, caterpillars, rabbits and cows. This sense of wonder expresses itself in 'why' and 'how' questions, such as those used by the renowned biologist from the 1950s, Dr. Fop I. Brouwer, in his radio presentations.
“Twenty years ago, the descriptions in the textbooks about the response of the plant to changes in temperature, light colour or day length still relied on ‘black-boxes’, where these changes were at most linked to the response by means of hormones or a few other signal compounds. The intermediate steps were limited primarily to dotted lines, often with many question marks. Today, for most plant hormones and for pigments such as phytochrome, the complex routes are known through which these compounds are capable of directing the development of the plant, enabling the plant to adapt itself to the current growing conditions", stated Van der Plas.
By applying new technologies, we have come to know much more about how plants successfully survive in their environment, about how seeds can survive difficult times and about the great flexibility of plant populations under different environmental conditions. We also know much more about the many special substances in plants (secondary metabolites), not only about their role in the plant (often as a signal substance in relation to pollinators and pests), but also regarding their usefulness for people, for example as nutritional components and medicines.
|