Research Group: Plant Signalling

Signal perception at the cell surface by receptors and transduction of these signals to the cell interior is essential for plants to react and adapt to changes in the surroundings.

Studies of signal transduction and receptor activation that together modulate growth and development is a complex, but fascinating topic. This work requires a combination of biochemical, molecular and bioimaging methods.

Finally, we identify compounds that modulates both plant and fungal plasma membrane (PM) H⁺-ATPases as these have potential as growth regulators and drugs. We have recently performed a systematic screening of fungal compounds and determined their influence on the enzymatic activity of plant PM H⁺-ATPases. This have led to identification of several compounds that have applied potential as plant biologicals and can be produced at a large scale using established biotechnological techniques.

The top figure is an artistic repetition of confocal channel overlay images showing sensor signals from a pH-sensor plasmid construction transformed into Arabidopsis seedlings and targeting the apoplast (Gjetting SK, Ytting CK, Schulz A, Fuglsang AT 2012 J Exp Bot 63 3207-3218). In the individual figure parts different colour scales and backgrounds have been introduced to make the artistic impression.