
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
The Laboratory of Molecular Biology has several research groups that are active at different areas of plant molecular biology. Their research programs aim to understand fundamental processes of plant biology and to use this fundamental knowledge in applied projects. Advanced techniques based on fluorescence microscopy are used in many of the ongoing projects in order to be able to study processes within cells.
Interim chair holder
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The Medicago genome provides insight into the evolution of rhizobial symbioses
Legumes (Fabaceae or Leguminosae) are unique among cultivated plants for their ability to carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria, a process that takes place in a specialized structure known as the nodule.
Read moreOur Research
Since its origin in 1972, the department of Molecular Biology has made major contributions to the development of molecular biological technology for fundamental and applied research. Over the past three decades students conducting research at our department have found positions in a wide variety of research areas including medical research, plant and animal sciences and biotechnology.
Bacterial invasion of plant cells
During the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis Rhizobium bacteria are taken up into the cytoplasm of nodule cells, where they are hosted in new organelle-like membrane compartments, called symbiosomes. The intracellular accommodation of bacteria in plant cells is unique to the nodule symbiosis and somewhat resembles the invasion of human and animal cells by pathogenic bacteria.
Latest publications
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Phytophthora infestans RXLR effector AVR1 disturbs the growth of Physcomitrium patens without affecting Sec5 localization
PLoS ONE 16 (2021)4. - ISSN 1932-6203 -
PHOSPHATIDYLETHANOLAMINE-BINDING PROTEINS: the conductors of dual reproduction in plants with vegetative storage organs
Journal of Experimental Botany 72 (2021)8. - ISSN 0022-0957 - p. 2845 - 2856. -
A nuclear-targeted effector of Rhizophagus irregularis interferes with histone 2B mono-ubiquitination to promote arbuscular mycorrhisation
New Phytologist (2021). - ISSN 0028-646X