Research projects
Research at the Department of Phytopathology
To foster food security, new plant protection strategies are needed, which is also in line with EU policies on the replacement of chemical disease control by 2030 to enhance eco-/sustainability in crop production and to improve food and feed safety. At the Department of Phytopathology, we explore the organisation of immunity in plant roots and plant symbioses to identify new genetic protection traits against pathogens. In addition, we examine non-coding RNAs as a currently untapped resource for the development of environmentally friendly, non-chemical crop-protecting biologicals.
Research projects:
Beneficial effectors - symbiont-guided plant protection
– Patrick Schäfer, Laura Rehneke
Regulatory organisation of root immunity at cell type resolution
– Ruth Schäfer
Functional root ecology –plant fitness and resistance priming
– Jennifer Thielmann
Non-coding RNAs for crop protection
– Patrick Schäfer
- Role of non-coding RNAs in beneficial symbioses
– Ena Šečić - Cross-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) in in pathogen control
– Bernhard Timo Werner - sRNAs & circRNAs in Plant-Microbe Interaction
Sabrine Nasfi
Sustainable plant protection
– Karl-Heinz Kogel