Research Group: Horticultural Science and Biotechnology
Horticultural Science and Biotechnology addresses topics within genetics, physiology and production of ornamental plants, fruits and new crops with high value.
Our research focus is flower- and reproduction biology, fruit and berry physiology, quality improvement, postharvest and ethylene biology. Additionally, we integrate processing and wine production, and emerging technologies for organic fruit production.
Our research addresses both classical breeding and molecular crop improvement including genetic engineering. Genetic modification results in improved quality and postharvest performance, thus enabling sustainable production. We have developed a platform for natural transformation using Agrobacterium rhizogenes, a non-GMO technology. We use molecular techniques to understand basic plant processes, regulation of plant secondary metabolism or elucidation of hormonal regulation and signaling pathways in plants.
- Genetic engineering and plant biotechnology
- Plant transformation and regeneration
- Domestication potential of new plants
- Fruit and berry genetic resources, physiology and quality
- Cool climate viticulture and enology
- Ethylene biology and postharvest physiology
- Plant high value compounds
- ASPECT2: Agrobacterium rhizogenes ORFs 11-15 specific roles in compact plant traits: a phenotypic to transcriptomic approach
- Plukenetia: Unravelling the domestication potential of Plukenetia
- THrUSTER: The underlying mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance facilitated by the rol-genes
- ANNATTO: Genetic analyses of Annatto (Bixa orellana) for natural colour
- New Unique Danish Apples: In a crowd breeding project, 1900 selected seedlings from an open pollination of 55 robust apple cultivars with high eating quality, are evaluated.
- Quality improvement of medicinal Cannabis: Development of molecular methods to improve morphology and secondary metabolites in medicinal Cannabis
- VirusEli: Virus elimination in the Pometum strawberry collection, in which via heat therapy and tissue culture the large and old historical collection of strawberries is cleaned for viruses.
- PPP Nordfruit: In a Nordic collaboration, prebreeding efforts are made in apple and strawberry.
Are you interested in doing a project? Read more about your options in the project database:
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences have various bachelor and master programmes:
Group members
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Schiang-Franck | Research assistant | +45 353-31002 | |
| Bruno Trevenzoli Favero | Academic employee | ||
| Henrik Vlk Lütken | Associate professor | +45 353-32006 | |
| Josefine Nymark Hegelund | Academic Staff | +45 353-33571 | |
| Junou He | PhD student | ||
| Maren Korsgaard | Professional secretary | +45 353-33401 | |
| Nete Kodahl | PhD student | +45 353-37879 | |
| Renate Müller | Professor | +45 353-33534 | |
| Torben Bo Toldam-Andersen | Associate professor | +45 353-33411 |
Master students
- Yan Lin
- Yi Tan
- Jiaming Xu
- Benedek Kovacs
- Jon van der Voort
- Xiao Tan
Contact research group leader
Renate Müller
Professor
M: ren@plen.ku.dk
Ph: +45 35 33 78 75