Welcome to the Department of
Physiological Ecology of Plants
at the University of Tübingen

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Research activities

• Metabolism of coniferous and decidious trees in response to exogenous factors (light, water, nitrogen- and magnesium supply, CO ₂ , air pollutants) and developmental processes
  Especially: CO ₂ gas exchange, and regulation of carbon allocation and carbon partitioning. Included are investigations on non-native conifers ( Araucaria angustifolia ; reafforestation project in Brazil).
• Trunkwood physiology in Robinia pseudoacacia
  Biochemical and physiological aspects of cambial differentiation; biochemistry, physiology and cytology of heartwood formation; primary and secondary metabolism in response to pathogenic fungi.
• Symbiotic root-fungus interactions (ectomycorrhiza)
  Regulation of metabolic pathways (gluconeogenesis, glycolysis, ox. pentose-phosphate pathway, respiration, anaplerotic pathways) and the exchange of compounds between the partners (carbohydrates, amino acids). Differential gene expression as a consequence of recognition processes during the establishment of the symbiosis.
• Protoplasts, tissue culture, electrofusion
  Isolation, culture and regeneration of plant cell protoplasts, with characterization of the associated physiological changes (energy metabolism, protein pattern). Interspecific somatic hybridization and biochemical/genetic analysis of hybrids (isoenzymes, RAPD-PCR). Effects of gravity on metabolism and differentiation of plant cells.
• Chronobiology research group

• Methods and Equipment
  Gas exchange analysis (Walz system), in vivo fluorescence determination, photometry, fluorometry, luminometry, quantitative histochemistry, HPLC, microgel electrophoresis, blotting (Western, Northern, Southern), DNA-, RNA-isolation, RAPD, PCR, analysis of transgenic plants, tissue culture, electrofusion

Staff

Theses

Publications

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