Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Researchers discover a genetic switch in plants that can turn simple spoon-shaped leaves into complex leaves with leaflets

Researchers describe novel regulatory mechanism that keeps plant immune responses in check

Salty soils make plants susceptible to the toxic effects of bacteria 

Researchers breed tomato plants that contain the complete genetic material of both parent plants

Large variation in gene content contributes to diversity within a species

Max Planck researchers work with partners in more than 120 countries. Here they write about their personal experiences and impressions. Jozefien Van de Velde from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne traveled to Australia for two months in search of frogs in the outback. This was no easy task, as her study subjects are nocturnal, hide underground in dry conditions, and only emerge after heavy rain.

Lanceolate, ovate, elliptical, entire, serrated, and uni- or multi-pinnate – there are numerous names to describe the variety of leaf morphology. But how does this diversity come about? Miltos Tsiantis from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne and his team are looking for genes that control leaf growth. They have already found one central regulatory element.

In many regions of the world, agriculture is threatened by a lack of water. New plant varieties must thus be developed that are especially resistant to drought.

Disease outbreaks in crops reduce global yields by about 30% each year. Harnessing the natural capacity of plants to block microbial infections would help shift towards more environmentally sustainable agriculture. Researchers have made significant progress in understanding molecular mechanisms of pathogen detection by dedicated immune receptors and how, once activated, these proteins mobilize defence programs to stop disease. The discovery of a set of immune receptor-generated nucleotide signalling molecules and their modes of action clears a new path for engineering crop disease resistance.

Plants inhabit an enormous range of habitats. Studying how they adapted to their specific environments can provide fundamental biological insights as well as information that can help to reduce the impacts of climate change on natural and agricultural ecosystems. We investigate the mechanisms of adaptation in natural populations of the molecular and eco-evolutionary model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. This system is ideal for connecting the biochemical and molecular bases of trait variation with its ecological and evolutionary context.

In the current era of big data, why do we still lack a complete molecular and physical understanding of how cells form tissues and develop into organisms? A simple answer is complexity across scales. Morphology is determined by a cascade of processes that take place at different scales of biological organization, and yield the final form through complex feedback loops of gene action, tissue growth and mechanics. Computational techniques are valuable to organize such data into mechanistic explanations. We describe two predictive, multi-scale studies of plant development and diversity.

Hybrid crops are favored in agriculture due to their increased vigor and yield. However, the offspring of hybrid plants is genetically variable due to sexual reproduction. Therefore, new hybrid seeds need to be generated by plant breeders year after year - a time consuming and costly process that is not amenable for all crops. Recent research has demonstrated that sexual reproduction can be avoided to produce clonal seeds maintaining the hybrid state. Here, we summarize novel approaches developed in hybrid Arabidopsis and rice promising a revolution in hybrid breeding and seed production.

Fungi and other filamentous microbial eukaryotes, i.e. oomycetes, cause many devastating plant diseases worldwide and are responsible for up to 10% of crop losses. Over the last decade, pesticide application, breeding for plant disease resistance or genetic manipulation of plant immune components have been primarily used to control microbial diseases. However, recent findings indicate that bacterial commensals living benignly inside or at the surface of plant root tissues can confer extended immune functions to the plant host, thereby restricting infection by filamentous microbes.