Speaker: Professor Caroline Gutjahr

Professor of Plant Genetics

TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich 

On Zoom

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is an ancient symbiosis between plants and glomeromycotan fungi that is extremely widespread in the plant kingdom and is based on nutritional benefits to both symbiotic partners. The plant receives mineral nutrients, especially phosphate from the fungus, and in return provides the fungus with carbohydrates and lipids. As a result, AM can significantly increase plant growth in low nutrient soils. We are interested in how the plant regulates root colonization by the fungus. I will present data on the role of karrikin signalling in regulating the amount of root colonization and will also provide new insights into the role of this most recently identified plant hormone signalling pathway in root and root hair development. In addition, I will present our efforts towards elucidating genetic determinants of AM-mediated plant growth increase. 

About the Speaker

Caroline Gutjahr is Professor of Plant Genetics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, where she studies the development and function of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis. She studied Biology at the Universities of Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) and Aberdeen (Scotland). She received her first training in AM research in the laboratory of Paola Bonfante at the University of Turin, Italy and conducted her PhD and a short Postdoc in the lab of Uta Paszkowski at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She established her own group supported by an Emmy Noether grant of the DFG at the University of Munich (LMU, Germany). In 2017, she received an ERC starting grant, and in 2018, the SEB president’s medal.

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