dr. T (Tino) Kreszies

I am an assistant professor in crop physiology at the Centre for Crop Systems Analysis. I aim to understand how roots control the exchange of water, nutrients and oxygen with the soil, and how this shapes crop performance and resilience.

My primary interest is in the apoplastic barriers of the root endodermis and exodermis: Casparian strips and suberin lamellae. Suberin is a cell wall-associated biopolymer that also occurs in bundle sheaths, in the periderm of tubers and in the cork of woody species. In roots, it limits water loss during drought, reduces oxygen and nutrient loss during waterlogging, and protects against toxic ions and pathogens.

These barriers are not fixed. Roots adjust where and how much suberin they deposit in response to their environment. This comes with a trade-off: a tight barrier protects the root but can also restrict uptake. Knowing when this balance pays off helps to develop crops that cope with drought, flooding and nutrient deficiency.

I work mainly on cereals: barley, maize and rice. My experiments span from lab to field scale, combining zone-resolved suberin chemistry, transcriptomics and transport physiology.

I teach in BSc, MSc and PhD courses on soil-plant relations, crop physiology and root ecology.