About

FOR 5235 aims to expand our understanding of the complex signaling and gene regulating networks and their interactions that determine meristem establishment, maintenance and termination in the two major cereal families. The Research Unit is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), started in february 2022 and is receiving funding for four years. 

In total, 10 research groups all over Germany and Switzerland are comprising the team. 

Participating researchers

P1   Prof. Dr. Thomas Dresselhaus      Department of Cell Biology and Plant Biochemistry, University of Regensburg (UR)

P2   Prof. Dr. Marja Timmermans         Developmental Genetics, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (UT)

P3   Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Simon                  Institute for Developmental Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)

P4   Prof. Dr. Frank Hochholdinger      INRES - Crop Functional Genomics, University of Bonn (UB)

P5   Prof. Dr. Yvonne Stahl                   Institute of Molecular Biosciences Plant Genetics, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main (GU)

P6   Prof. Dr. Maria von Korff               Institute for Plant Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)

P7   Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schnurbusch   Plant Architecture, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)

P8   Dr. Karina van der Linde                Department of Cell Biology and Plant Biochemistry, University of Regensburg (UR)

P9   Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger                Department of Developmental Biology, University of Hamburg (UHH)

P10 Prof. Dr. Michael Raissig                Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern (UB)

Overview

Overview of research projects aiming to understand the establishment, maintenance and termination of cereal stem cell systems (CSCS) using maize, barley and Brachypodium as model plants.

P1 will investigat the establishment of embryonic shoot and root apical meristems (eSAM/eRAM) in maize.

P2 and P3 will analyze the maintenance of the primary shoot apical meristem (SAM) in maize and barley respectively.

P4 will study the establishment of secondary postembryonic lateral root meristems (IRM) in maize.

P5 aims to understand the promary root apical meristem (RAM) in barley.

P6 and P7 will use barley as a model to investigate the establishment and maintenance of inflorescence meristems (IM) including the establishment of spikelet (SM) and floret meristems (FM).

P8 and P9 will investigate the transient establishment and termination of the male (mGC) and demale germline cell lineages (fGC) in maize respetively.

P10 uses Brachypodium as cereal model to analyse termination of protodermal stem cells (PSC) and the establishment of distinct epidermal lineages from the SAM to committed epidermal cell types.