Research Group: Plant Defence Genetics
Diseases cause yield reductions and affects product quality in plant production. In order to control the pathogens behind these problems, it is essential to understand the exceedingly complex molecular mechanisms of plant-pathogen interactions.
We primary focus is the powdery mildew, stripe rust and speckled leaf blotch fungal pathogens of barley and wheat. We use bacterial pathogens and Arabidopsis as model instruments in our studies.
We are interested in how defence is activated in plants after pathogen attack, how it is regulated and manifested, how the pathogens suppress the plant defence mechanisms by the help of effectors, and how induction of defence can be exploited for disease control.
- PlantsGoImmune (PGI) - A new paradigm for disease-free crops of tomorrow (Novo Nordisk Foundation): Design disease resistance by making effector-insensitive effector targets
- T-REX – T3SS-Recognition EXploration (Marie Curie Individual Fellowship): Identification of the T3SS-component that is recognised in wheat
- Plant recognition of the bacterial Type-3 Secretion System (T3SS) for activation of immunity (FTP): Identification of the wheat receptor
- Two-to-tango – Durable plant disease resistance will require two mutations (Villum Foundation): Mutate plant genes for disease susceptibility, and since this will activate immune receptors then mutate these as well
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carsten Pedersen | Associate professor | +45 353-33450 | |
| Hans Jørgen Lyngs Jørgensen | Associate professor | +45 353-33775 | |
| Hans Thordal-Christensen | Professor | +45 353-33443 | |
| Lara Smigielski | Postdoc | +45 353-32611 | |
| Mads Eggert Nielsen | Senior adviser | +45 353-20270 | |
| Mengqi Liu | |||
| Ole Reppien Christensen | Research assistant | +45 353-32035 | |
| Paraskevi Doukoudaki | PhD fellow | +45 353-31791 | |
| Shichao Ren | Postdoc | +45 353-30889 | |
| Wenjun Xie | Postdoc | +45 353-33858 | |
| Wenlin Liao | PhD student | ||
| Xuan Li | Research assistant | +45 353-33810 | |
| Zizhang Li | +45 50 65 07 84 |
| Sercan Pazarlar | PhD Guest Scientist | |
| Sílvia Tavares | PhD Guest Scientist |
Contact research group leader
Hans Thordal-Christensen
Professor WSR
M: htc@plen.ku.dk
Ph: +45 35 33 34 43