Laboratory of Plant Physiology
The Laboratory of Plant Physiology of Wageningen University & Research aims to contribute to the understanding of how plants function. We are particularly interested in how plants respond to changes in their sometimes hostile environment.
News
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The viability of Seeds for the Future
- No seeds, no agriculture—it's a universal truth. However, it took Professor Leónie Bentsink five years to convince her colleagues and the... -
Dutch Research Council funds research on interaction between microbes and seeds
- Microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, play an important role in nature. They help plants absorb nutrients and protect against diseases, for example.... -
ERC-grant for research on plant cytoplasmic inheritance
- The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a research grant to researcher Kin Pan Chung. He receives the ERC Starting Grant for his research on...
Courses
The Laboratory of Plant Physiology teaches plant physiology to 1st and 2nd year BSc Biology, Plant Sciences and Forest & Nature Conservation students. In addition, we contribute to a whole series of more specialized courses for 3rd year BSc, MSc and PhD students from several Study Programmes.
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Research
Important aspects in our research are the processes occurring in plants in response to a (changing) environment and the response of the plant to this environment. We study, for example, the effect of environmental factors on partitioning of metabolites between different organs (source-sink relationships) and the production of secondary metabolites involved in plant-insect interactions. Other examples are the regulation of quality control in protein processing during seed filling and the resource availability during germination and growth of the seedling. Genetics, natural variation, the analysis of plant hormones and other signaling molecules, and -omics technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics are essential expertises used in our research.
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Latest publications
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Resilience of Ricinus communis L. to high temperatures during germination and seedling growth resulting from efficient superoxide dismutase modulation
Revista Brasileira de Botanica (2024), Volume: 47, Issue: 2 - ISSN 0100-8404 - p. 311-324. -
A commitment for life: Decades of unraveling the molecular mechanisms behind seed dormancy and germination
The Plant Cell (2024), Volume: 36, Issue: 5 - ISSN 1040-4651 - p. 1358-1376. -
Arabinosylation of cell wall extensin is required for the directional response to salinity in roots
The Plant Cell (2024), Volume: 36, Issue: 9 - ISSN 1040-4651 - p. 3328-3343.