COS Lectures

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Mon, 25th Mar 2019, 16:00

Prof. Dr. Oliver Fiehn

West Coast Metabolomics Center, UC Davis, California, USA

"tba"

Host: Dr. Gernot Poschet

Prof. Oliver Fiehn has pioneered developments and applications in metabolomics with over 220 publications to date, starting in 1998 as postdoctoral scholar and from 2000 onwards as group leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany. Since 2004 he is Professor at the UC Davis Genome Center, overseeing his research laboratory and the satellite core service laboratory in metabolomics research. Since 2012, he serves as Director of the NIH West Coast Metabolomics Center, supervising 35 staff operating 16 mass spectrometers and coordinating activities with three UC Davis satellite labs, including efforts for combined interpretation of genomics and metabolomics data. The West Coast Metabolomics Center provides the most extensive and most in-depth analysis of metabolites available today, using a range of validated protocols for fee-for-service projects and scientific collaborations.

Professor Fiehn’s research aims at understanding metabolism on a comprehensive level in human population cohorts, animal and plant models, and cells and microorganisms. In order to leverage data from these diverse sets of biological systems, his research laboratory focuses on standardizing metabolomic reports and establishing metabolomic databases and libraries, for example the MassBank of North America that hosts over 200,000 public metabolite mass spectra and BinBase, a resource of over 90,000 samples covering more than 1,900 studies. Professor Fiehn’s laboratory members develop and implement new approaches and technologies in analytical chemistry for covering the metabolome, from increasing peak capacity by ion mobility to compound identifications through cheminformatics workflows and software. He collaborates with a range of investigators for interpreting metabolomic data in human diseases through statistics, text mining and pathway-based mapping efforts. He also studies fundamental biochemical questions from metabolite damage repair to the new concept of epimetabolites, the chemical transformation of primary metabolites that gain regulatory functions in cells.

For his work, Professor Fiehn has received a range of awards including the 2014 Molecular & Cellular Proteomics Lecture Award and the 2014 Metabolomics Society Lifetime Achievement Award. He served on the Board of Directors of the Metabolomics Society from 2005-2010 and 2012-2015, organizing a range of workshops and conferences, including the 2011 Asilomar metabolomics meeting and the 2015 Metabolomics Society international conference in San Francisco that reached a record of over 1,000 participants.

COS-lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 4th Apr 2019, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Holger Puchta

Institute of Botany, KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany

"Genome engineering in plants: past, presence, future"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 9th May 2019, 14:00

Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger

University of Hamburg, Germany

"tba"

Host: Prof. Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 16th May 2019, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Yrjö Helariutta

Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK

"tba"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Greb

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 24th Jan 2019, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Anja Geitmann

Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Quebec, Canada

"Mastering the maze – how plant males find their partners"

Host: Dr. Guido Großmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 13th Dec 2018, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Christoph Englert

Leibniz Institute on Aging, Fritz-Lipmann-Institute, Jena, Germany

" Insights into aging and sex determination from a short-lived killifish"

Host: Dr. Lazaro Centanin

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.005, Thu, 15th Nov 2018, 14:00

Dr. Caren Norden

MPI for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

"From growth to lamination the emergence of the vertebrate retina"

Host: Dr. Annika Guse

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 8th Nov 2018, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Klaus Theres

MPI for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany

"Mechanisms in axillary meristem formation"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Greb

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 25th Oct 2018, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Dorothée Staiger

University of Bielefeld, Germany

"Ribonomics to identify RNA-binding protein targets in Arabidopsis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Tue, 11th Sep 2018, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Takashi Ueda

National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Okazaki, Japan

"Diversification and Evolution of Membrane Trafficking Pathways in Plants ~ How did plants acquire new organelles"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 230, room 00.005, Fri, 13th Jul 2018, 11:00

Dr. Yasin Dagdas

Gregor-Mendel-Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria

"Bridging the gap between selective autophagy and endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Greb

Our group is interested in understanding the role of autophagy in plant development and stress tolerance at a cell type specific resolution.The term ‘autophagy’ is a misnomer. The name implies that autophagy is only about macromolecule degradation. However, it is now well established that autophagy is a membrane trafficking process that is fundamental to all eukaryotic cells and is essential for various biological functions. A subset of autophagic cargoes end up in the vacuole and get recycled, but many others are involved in exocytosis, vesicle trafficking etc. Contrary to dogma, autophagy is also highly selective. A ubiquitin-like protein called ATG8 interacts with autophagy receptors that decode autophagy signals and, overall, ensure specificity. Since autophagy is required for cellular survival, the rules of this ATG8 code remain an outstanding question in biology. Plants provide a great platform to mechanistically study selective autophagy because the ATG8 gene family is rapidly evolving and expanded. Using Arabidopsis roots and Marchantia as the main experimental systems, our long-term goal is to decipher mechanistic underpinnings of autophagy.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 14th Jun 2018, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbrüggen

Institute of Synthetic Biology, Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf, Germany

"Plant and mammalian synthetic biology and optogenetics approaches for the control and understanding of cellular processes"

Host: Dr. Guido Großmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 3rd May 2018, 14:00

Prof. Dr. Sabine Zachgo

University of Osnabrück

"Unraveling key transcription factor functions in Marchantia polymorpha"

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 26th Apr 2018, 14:00

Prof. Dr. Eric Kemen

University of Tübingen

"Dynamics versus stability - How microbial communities interact to colonise a host"

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.005, Mon, 9th Apr 2018, 11:00

Dr. Lyuba Ryabova

IBMP, CNRS, Strasbourg, France

"Target of rapamycin (TOR) in translation reinitiation control"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

Alternative time 2-3 pm the same day

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 8th Mar 2018, 13:00

Prof. Dr. Martin Kaltenpoth

University of Mainz, Germany

"An inordinate fondness for symbionts: mutualist-provided defense, digestion, and desiccation tolerance in beetles"

Host: COS Postdocs

Abstract
Symbiotic associations with microbes are important driving forces of evolutionary innovation. The hyperdiverse insect order Coleoptera, the beetles, are associated with an astounding diversity of symbionts that provide a wide range of functional benefits to their hosts. Highlighting a few selected beetle-microbe associations, I will report on novel findings of symbiont-provided antibiotic defense, microbe-enabled digestion of plant material, and symbiont-mediated adaptation to the abiotic environment. These examples are intended to show the impact of symbionts on niche expansion and diversification in beetles, but also provide insights into life-style switches from parasitism to mutualism in bacteria as well as the process of extreme genome reduction beyond the well-known intracellular symbioses.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 14th Dec 2017, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Fischer

KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany

"How fungi use phytochrome to adapt to the environment"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.005, Tue, 12th Dec 2017, 10:00

Prof. Dr. Volker Hartenstein

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

"The role of Wnt signalling during the specification of the Drosophila gut endocrine system"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 23rd Nov 2017, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Isabel Bäurle

Institut für Biochemie und Biologie
Universität Potsdam

"Adaptation to environmental stress by a chromatin-based stress memory in Arabidopsis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.001, Tue, 14th Nov 2017, 11:00

Ass. Prof. Dr. Peter Broderson

Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

"Insights into the requirement for small RNA methylation in plants"

Host: Prof. Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 12th Oct 2017, 11:00

"The Drosophila Embryo at single cell transcriptome resolution"

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Fri, 22nd Sep 2017, 11:00

Prof. Dr. John Allen

University College London, UK

"Co-Product of a Workshop on : Write Evolution at its Best - Scientific Writing"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 11th May 2017, 14:00

Prof. Dr. José Pardo

Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, CSIC Sevilla, Spain

"Molecular connections between salinity stress signaling and the regulation of flowering time in Arabidopsis"

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 6th Apr 2017, 11:00

Ass. Prof. Dr. Ildoo Hwang

Dept. of Life Sciences, POSTECH Biotech Center, Pohang University, Korea

"Epistructural control on RNA G-rich element specifies phloem differentiation"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Greb

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.005, Thu, 9th Mar 2017, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Thomas Ott

Dept. of Genetics, LMU Munich, Germany

"Dynamics of plant cell surface receptors and partners"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Greb

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 10th Nov 2016, 11:00

Dr. Anthony Dodd

School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, UK

"Circadian and environmental regulation of chloroplasts"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch, Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

Photosynthesis within chloroplasts captures solar energy to fuel plant growth and reproduction. There are circadian rhythms of photosynthesis and circadian regulation increases plant productivity (Dodd et al. Science 2005). However, there is limited knowledge of how chloroplasts are regulated by the circadian oscillator. To understand this, we are investigating the nature of the cellular mechanisms that communicate environmental and circadian timing information to chloroplasts. We have shown that in Arabidopsis, a subset of chloroplast-encoded photosynthesis genes are controlled by a nuclear-encoded regulators of chloroplast transcription (Noordally et al. Science 2013). We are also investigating how the chloroplast genome is regulated in response to light and temperature conditions (Belbin et al. New Phytol. 2016). This is providing insights into the evolution of signalling pathways associated with chloroplasts and photosynthesis (Atkins & Dodd Curr Op. Plant Biol. 2014).

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.005, Fri, 7th Oct 2016, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Edward Farmer

Dept. of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

"Long distance signalling in wounded plants"

Host: PhD students at COS

COS-Lecture

INF 230, R. 00.004, Thu, 9th Jun 2016, 11:00

Dr. Muriel Perron

Ecole des Neurosciences Paris Ile-de-France, Paris, France

"Retinal stem cells and the Hippo/YAP pathway"

Host: PhD students´speakers at COS

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 14th Apr 2016, 11:00

Dr. Wolfgang Busch

Gregor-Mendel-Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria

"Uncovering key genes and networks regulating root growth using systems genetics"

Host: Dr. Thomas Greb

Despite their inability to move, vascular plants have colonized the vast majority of the earth’s land surface. Key to this colonization was the evolution of root systems that enable plants to forage their environment for both nutrients and water and to tightly anchor themselves in the soil substrate. Soils are very heterogeneous environments, and due to the constant need to optimize root distribution in the soil according to sometimes conflicting parameters, root growth and development are some of the most plastic traits in plants. While this modulation of growth and development occurs in response to environmental conditions, both its onset and extent are genetically determined. In recent years, the genetic and molecular basis underlying root growth regulation has been approached and many genes and pathways have been uncovered that play key roles for root growth processes. However, only very recently is light being shed on the genes and genetic and molecular mechanisms tha t determine differences in root growth in natural populations. To approach this question, we use an approach combining custom large-scale phenotyping pipelines that enable us to capture quantitative root phenotypes of a very large number of genetically distinct individuals of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, genome wide association studies to identify the associated loci in the genome, and systems-biology driven approaches to identify the gene networks and pathways that quantitatively regulate root growth. Using these approaches, we have recently identified and experimentally verified multiple novel regulators that underlie a significant proportion of natural variation in root growth. These include a component of the exocyst complex and a regulatory module of leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (LRR-RLK) genes that regulates root growth in an epistatic manner. Overall, our results demonstrate that, using a systems-genetics approach that combines large-scale phenotyping, genome wide association studies and functional genomics, it is possible to identify key genes and genetic networks that quantitatively regulate root growth and development and have potential adaptive value.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 10th Mar 2016, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Gruissem

Plant Biotechnology, Dept. of Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

"What does it take to become a productive plant leaf?"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 11th Feb 2016, 11:00

Prof. Dr. George Coupland

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany

"Comparative analysis of pathways controlling seasonal flowering in annual and perennial Brassicaceae species"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston

Abstract:
We study the mechanisms by which the life cycles of annual and perennial plants are synchronised to the changing seasons. The Brassicaceae family is an excellent model system to study these processes because annual and perennial species have diverged independently many times within the family and A. thaliana, as an extensively studied annual, provides a basis for mechanistic studies. We have developed Arabis alpina as a model perennial within the family and have characterized its annual sister species Arabis montbretiana. We have sequenced the genomes of both species and generated populations derived from inter-species crosses. Perennial A. alpina shows interesting differences in its responses to seasonal cues from the annuals A. thaliana and A. montbretiana. A. alpina flowers in response to winter cold, and shows characteristic features of perennials such as only becoming sensitive to environmental cues after it reaches a certain age and cycling between episodes of flowering and vegetative development within its life cycle. By contrast the annual species are monocarpic, flowering once and then undergoing senescence. Using a combination of forward genetics, genomics and comparative analyses in a phylogenetic context we have defined some of the mechanisms by which flowering regulation differs between annuals and perennials, contributing to the divergence of these life histories during evolution. The talk will describe the Arabis genus as a model system for studying perennialism, some of the mechanisms that confer seasonal patterns of flowering in perennials and how these are significant in phenotypic variation among European populations of Arabis alpina.



George Coupland

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Cologne, Germany.





We study the mechanisms by which the life cycles of annual and perennial plants are synchronised to the changing seasons. The Brassicaceae family is an excellent model system to study these processes because annual and perennial species have diverged independently many times within the family and A. thaliana, as an extensively studied annual, provides a basis for mechanistic studies. We have developed Arabis alpina as a model perennial within the family and have characterized its annual sister species Arabis montbretiana. We have sequenced the genomes of both species and generated populations derived from inter-species crosses. Perennial A. alpina shows interesting differences in its responses to seasonal cues from the annuals A. thaliana and A. montbretiana. A. alpina flowers in response to winter cold, and shows characteristic features of perennials such as only becoming sensitive to environmental cues after it reaches a certain age and cycling between episodes of flowering and vegetative development within its life cycle. By contrast the annual species are monocarpic, flowering once and then undergoing senescence. Using a combination of forward genetics, genomics and comparative analyses in a phylogenetic context we have defined some of the mechanisms by which flowering regulation differs between annuals and perennials, contributing to the divergence of these life histories during evolution. The talk will describe the Arabis genus as a model system for studying perennialism, some of the mechanisms that confer seasonal patterns of flowering in perennials and how these are significant in phenotypic variation among European populations of Arabis alpina.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 21st Jan 2016, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Mario Malagoli

Dept. Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animal and Environment; University of Padova, Italy

"How should we feed the planet?"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

Prof. Malagoli at present spends his sabbatical at COS in the group of Rüdiger Hell. The lecture title refers to the motto of the last International EXPO in Milan, Italy. It will highlight the following aspects:
- How could we reach the goal of eliminating hunger in a world with increasing population?
- What kind of agriculture should we consider to produce enough food?

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 10th Dec 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel

Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

"Living with biodiversity?"

Host: COS Direktorium

COS-Lecture

INF 230, room 00.005, Thu, 12th Nov 2015, 11:00

Dr. Shinichi Sunagawa

Structural and Computational Biology, EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany

"Eco-Systemsbiology of the Human Gut and the Global Ocean Microbiome"

Host: Dr. Annika Guse

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Mon, 26th Oct 2015, 14:00

Ass. Prof. Dr. Minoru Tanaka

National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Okazaki, Japan

"New roles of germ cells - sex determination and fecundity"

Host: Prof. Dr. J. Wittbrodt

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Fri, 9th Oct 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. David Twell

University of Leicester, UK

"Plant male germline development: A life after meiosis"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Mon, 28th Sep 2015, 11:00

Dr. Vsevolod Belousov

Institute for Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moskow, Russia

"Novel molecular tools for redox imaging and metabolic engineering"

Host: Dr. Rainer Waadt

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 17th Sep 2015, 11:00

Dr. Yves Gibon

Director of research, INRA Bordeaux, France

"Fruit Systems Biology"

Host: Dr. Emmanuel Gaquerel

COS-Lecture

INF 230, SR 00.005, Thu, 20th Aug 2015, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Markus Grebe

Plant Physiology, University of Potsdam, Germany

"Cytoskeletal Organization and Lipid Domain Function During Planar Polarity Establishment In Arabidopsis"

Host: Dr. Guido Großmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Wed, 12th Aug 2015, 14:00

Dr. George Bassel

School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, UK

"Complex systems analysis of plant development"

Host: Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 9th Jul 2015, 13:00

Prof. Dr. Josephine C. Adams

School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, U.K.

"Thrombospondins are conserved players in metazoan extracellular matrix organisation"

Host: Dr. Suat Özbek

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Fri, 26th Jun 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Julian Schroeder

Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, USA

"Drought-Induced Abscisic Acid Signalling and Atmospheric CO2 Sensing in Plants"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 21st May 2015, 11:00

Dr. Francois Parcy

CEA, Institute of life sciences research and technologies (IRTSV), Grenoble, France

"Structural insights into the function and the evolution of a master floral regulator"

Host: Prof. Dr. Jan Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 230, Room 00.005, Thu, 30th Apr 2015, 11:00

Hernan López Schier

Sensory Biology & Organogenesis,
HelmholtzZentrum München, Germany

"Building and regenerating a sensorineural circuit underlying polarised mechanoreception"

Host: Dr. Lazaro Centanin

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 16th Apr 2015, 11:00

Dr. Eva Benkova

IST Vienna, Austria

"Hormonal regulation of root system architecture"

Host: Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, R. 00.001, Tue, 7th Apr 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Tsonis Panagiotis

University of Dayton, Ohio, USA

"Dissecting regeneration through the lens"

Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Thu, 12th Mar 2015, 11:00

Dr. Timothy Sharbel

IPK Gatersleben, Germany

"Evolutionary approaches to deciphering the functional switch from sexual to asexual (apomictic) reproduction in natural plant populations"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 12th Feb 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Christiane Gatz

Plant Molecular Biology and Physiology, University of Göttingen, Germany

"Functional analysis of plant-specific CC-type glutaredoxins"

COS-Lecture

INF 230, seminar room 00.005, Thu, 5th Feb 2015, 13:00

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Götz

Institute for Stem Cells, HelmholtzZentrum München, Germany

"Neural stem cells in homeostasis and after brain injury"

Host: Ingrid Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 8th Jan 2015, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dagmar Iber

Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland

"From Networks to Function - Computational Models of Organogenesis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Ursula Kummer

One of the major challenges in biology concerns the integration of data
across length and time scales into a consistent framework: how do
macroscopic properties and functionalities arise from the molecular
regulatory networks ­and how do they evolve? Morphogenesis provides an
excellent model system to study how simple molecular networks robustly
control complex pattern forming processes on the macroscopic scale in
spite of molecular noise, and how important functional variants can evolve
from small genetic changes. Recent advancements in 3D imaging
technologies, computer algorithms, and computer power now allow us to
develop and analyse increasingly realistic models of biological control.
To incorporate cellular dynamics and cell-cell interactions in our
simulations, we have also recently developed a software tool that allows
us to solve our regulatory network models on dynamic 2D and 3D tissue
domains at cellular resolution. I will present our recent work where we
use data-based modeling to arrive at predictive models to address the
mechanism of branching in lungs and kidneys, the mechanism by which an
asymmetry emerges in our hand (thumb to pinky), as well as a mechanism by
which proportions are maintained in differently sized embryos.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 22nd Jul 2014, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Gerd Jürgens

Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP)
University of Tübingen

"Plant cytokinesis - a tale of membrane traffic and function"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 10th Apr 2014, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Damian Brunner

Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich

"Mechanisms and principles of tissue gap closure"

Host: Prof. Dr. I. Lohmann

Dorsal closure is a wound healing related process taking place during fruit fly embryogenesis. Thereby, an eye-shaped gap in the dorsal epidermis is closed. The process involves the dorsal-ward convergence of the two lateral epidermis sheets flanking the opening and the joining of the corresponding cells on both sides when the leading fronts have sufficiently approached each other.
Tissue convergence involves pulsed contractions of the amnioserosa cells, which fill the opening. This generates transient forces that locally pull the epidermis dorsally. Before the onset of dorsal closure, the epidermis front retracts ventrally after each pulling event. Sustained, dorsal-ward epidermis movement requires the formation of a contractile actin/myosin cable on the dorsal apical side of the epidermis cells at the leading edges.
I will show results suggesting that during midgut closure, a process that is probably related to epiboly in zebrafish, similar mechanistic principles may function. However, there are intriguing differences in the force generation processes in dorsal closure.
Once the closing tissue fronts have sufficiently approached, tissue joining has to occur to finalize both developmental processes. Tissue joining activity starts at the anterior and posterior corners of the openings and sweeps across the gap similar to closing zippers. During dorsal closure, joining cells pull on each other to generate a third force, which helps bringing the amnioserosa tissue down inside the embryo. Zipping requires the epidermis cells at the leading edge to form actin-based protrusions and to reorganize their microtubule cytoskeleton.
We have established a protocol for correlative fluorescence electron tomography of fly embryos.
The resulting 3D analysis of cell shape and protrusion formation in correlation with cytoskeleton architecture and cell adhesion during zipping suggests new models for force generation during this process and multiple mechanistic roles for the microtubules. We also detect intriguing amnioserosa tissue deformations that will need to be integrated into current force models.

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 1st Apr 2014, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Thomas Dresselhaus

Cell Biology & Plant Biochemistry
University of Regensburg

"Peptide signalling during germline formation and double fertilization"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston and Dr. Guido Grossmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 21st Jan 2014, 17:00

Dr. Cyril Zipfel

The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK

"Regulation of early receptor kinase-mediated innate immune signalling"

Host: Dr. Sebastian Wolf

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 29th Oct 2013, 17:00

Dr. Emmanuel Gaquerel

COS, junior research group Plant defense metabolism

"Secondary metabolites as essential determinants of plant-insect interactions"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 15th Oct 2013, 17:00

Dr. David Ehrhardt

Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of Science, Stanford, USA

"Linking environmental signaling to subcellular organization - a mechanism for blue light-stimulated reorientation of cortical microtubule arrays in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana"

Host: Dr. Guido Grossmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 1st Oct 2013, 17:00

Prof. Dr. em. Widmar Tanner

Cell Biology & Plant Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Germany

"Order needs energy: Compartmentation of fungal plasma membranes and its role concerning sterols in polyene toxicity"

Host: Prof. Dr. S. Strahl/Dr. Guido Grossmann

Supported by SFB 638

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 23rd Jul 2013, 15:00

Prof. Dr. José Feijó

Inst. Gulbenkian Ciencia & Universidade Lisboa, Portugal

"Excitation about sex in plants: merging biophysics with genetics on the pollen tube system"

Host: Dr. Amal Johnston

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 9th Jul 2013, 17:00

Dr. Martin Crespi

Institut des Sciences Végétales, CNRS,
Gif-sur-Yvette, France

"Long non-coding RNAs in root growth and development"

Host: Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Wed, 12th Jun 2013, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Ajit Varma

Amity Institute of Microbial Technology (AIMT),
Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India

"Interaction of symbiotic fungus Piriformospora indica with nanoparticles and their biotechnological applications"

Host: Dr. Tanja Peskan-Berghöfer

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 11th Jun 2013, 17:00

Prof. Dr. med. H.-J. Gröne

Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, DKFZ Heidelberg

"Cellular and Molecular In Vivo-Functions of Glycosphingolipids"

Host: Prof. Dr. Sabine Strahl

COS-Lecture

INF 267, Lecture Hall 041 (Bioquant), Thu, 6th Jun 2013, 13:00

Dr. Yacine Graba

"Control of Hox transcription factor activity: insights from genetic and structural approaches"

Host: Prof. Dr. Ingrid Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 14th May 2013, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Neuhaus

TU Kaiserslautern, Fachbereich Biologie, Division Plant Physiology

"Sugar transport across the plant vaculuar membrane. Characterization of carriers and impact on plant performance"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

BZH, INF 328, SR 25, Mon, 25th Feb 2013, 12:15

Dr. Hans Bakker

Dept. Cellular Chemistry,
Hannover Medical School,
Hannover, Germany

"Identification of the C-mannosyltransferase modifying thrombospondin type I repeats"

Host: Prof. Dr. Sabine Strahl

COS-Lecture

INF 267, Lecture Hall 041 (Bioquant), Fri, 8th Feb 2013, 13:00

Dr. Alex Gould

"Food for thought: nutrients and neural stem cells in Drosophila"

Host: Prof. Dr. Ingrid Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Tue, 5th Feb 2013, 17:00

Dr. Carmela Giglione

"Roles of N-terminal fatty acid acetylations in membrane compartment partitioning: Arabidopsis h-TRXs as a case study"

Host: Dr. Markus Wirtz

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Tue, 22nd Jan 2013, 17:00

Dr. Herman Höfte

Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin (IJPB), INRA, Versailles, France

"The role of plant cell walls in growth control"

Host: Dr. Sebastian Wolf

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 8th Jan 2013, 17:00

Dr. Olivier Hamant

Université de Lyon, ENS, Lyon, France

"Mechanical cues control growth heterogeneity and guide morphogenesis in plants"

Host: Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Tue, 11th Dec 2012, 17:00

Dr. Genschik

Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes du CNRS (IBMP-CNRS), Strasbourg, France

"When protein degradation meets RNA silencing"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 360, Lecture Hall, Tue, 27th Nov 2012, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Peiter

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg

"Crossing the membrane - Cation transport for signalling and homeostasis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 230, Small lect. hall, Thu, 27th Sep 2012, 11:00

Alexandra Van Keymeulen

"Revisiting cellular hierarchy in the mammary gland and the prostate by lineage tracing"

Host: Damien Devos

COS-Lecture

INF230, Small Lecture Hall, Thu, 26th Jul 2012, 11:15

Andre Pires da Silva

University of Texas at Arlington

"Evolution of animals with three genders: how and why?"

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Tue, 24th Jul 2012, 17:00

Dr. Miguel A. Blázquez

Instituto de Biologá Molecular y Celular de Plantas, UPV-CSIC, Valencia, Spain

"DELLA proteins: coordinators of growth in time and space"

Host: Prof. Dr. Jan Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Tue, 10th Jul 2012, 17:00

Dr. Christa S. Testerink

Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam,
NL

"Take it or leave it: cellular signaling pathways linking salinity stress to root growth"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 267, Lecture Hall 041 (Bioquant), Thu, 28th Jun 2012, 10:00

Rolf Zeller

Departement of Biomedicine, University of Basel

"Vertebrate Limb Organogenesis and Diversification in the Age of Systems Biology"

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 12th Jun 2012, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Sacha Baginsky

Institut für Biochemie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale)

"Functional proteomics: The role of posttranslational modifications in chloroplast biogenesis and function"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 5th Jun 2012, 17:00

Dr. Alexandros Stamatakis

Scientific Computing group, HITS gGmbH, Heidelberg

"Biodiversity Informatics: An Emerging Computational Science"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch

Abstract:
Biodiversity informatics and phyloinformatics in particular are currently
facing a paradigm shift toward becoming a 'real' computational science.
Molecular sequencing technologies are developing at a rapid pace, providing the biological sciences with enormous amounts of new data.
Due to the necessity to process (and store) huge amounts of data, we expect the field to undergo an analogous transition that physics or computational fluid dynamics underwent 20
to 30 years ago. For instance, we are already facing such data analysis challenges in the 1000 insect transcriptome sequencing project (www.1kite.org). Such evolutionary studies require software that scales far beyond a multi-core node, that can be checkpointed and restarted with low overhead, and that can accommodate
the memory requirements of whole-genome datasets under likelihood-based models.

As an example of the efforts to turn biodiversity informatics into a computational science, I will describe RAxML-Light,
a dedicated tool for large-scale phylogenetic inference on supercomputers under maximum likelihood.
RAxML-Light implements a light-weight checkpointing mechanism, deploys 128-bit (SSE3) and 256-bit (AVX) vector intrinsics, offers two orthogonal memory saving
techniques, and provides a fine-grain production-level MPI (Message Passing Interface) parallelization of
the likelihood function.
To demonstrate scalability and robustness of the code, we inferred a phylogeny on a simulated DNA alignment (1481 taxa, 20,000,000 bp) using 672 cores. This
alignment required one TeraByte of RAM to compute the likelihood score on a single tree.
Web: www.exelixis-lab.org

COS-Lecture

INF 267, Lecture Hall 041 (Bioquant), Tue, 15th May 2012, 13:15

Prof. Dr. Francois Schweisguth

"A live imaging analysis of Notch regulation by Numb"

Host: Dr. Ingrid Lohmann

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Fri, 20th Apr 2012, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski

Universität Freiburg

"A new mechanism for eukariyotic gene regulation revealed using a plant model system"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Tue, 17th Apr 2012, 17:00

Dr. Moritz Nowack

Flandern Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Ghent University, Belgium

"Programmed cell death during plant reproductive development"

Host: Dr. Alexis Maizel

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 14th Feb 2012, 11:00

Prof. Dr. Jian-Quan Liu

Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

"Introgression and hybrid speciation in Ostryopsis (Betulaceae)"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Tue, 7th Feb 2012, 17:00

Dr. Silke Robatzek

The Sainsbury Laboratories, Norwich, UK

"Plants communicating with pathogens: Membranes in motion and cellular responses"

Host: Prof. Dr. David G. Robinson

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 20th Dec 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Klaus Mummenhoff

Universität Osnabrück

"Evolutionary studies in Brassicaceae: Molecules and morphology meet ecology"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 15th Nov 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Ivo Feussner

Dept. of Plant Biochemistry, University of Göttingen

"On the quest for biomarkers for Verticillium infection"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Wed, 9th Nov 2011, 14:15

Dr. John Ryals

Chief Science Officer and President, Metabolon Inc., Durham, USA

"Metabolomics applications for mechanistic insights and biomarker discovery"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

Inf 230, small lecture hall, Tue, 8th Nov 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Daniel Hofius

Uppsala BioCenter, Sweden

"Mechanisms of autophagy and programmed cell death in plant immunity"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 25th Oct 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Anant K. Menon

Dept. of Biochemistry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA

"Lipid flipping and N-glycolysation"

Host: Prof. Dr. Sabine Strahl

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Thu, 20th Oct 2011, 16:45

Dr. Sebastian Wolf

INRA, Versailles, France

"Sensing of cell wall integrity"

Host: Dr. Steffen Greiner

COS-Lecture

Lecture Hall Im Neuenheimer Feld 360, Thu, 20th Oct 2011, 00:00

Dr. Wolf, Sebastian

INRA, Versailles, Frankreich

"Sensing of cell wall integrity"

COS-Lecture

INF 230, small lecture hall, Mon, 10th Oct 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Jaideep Mathur

Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

"Differential colouring for understanding rapid sub-cellular responses in plants"

Host: Prof. Dr. David G. Robinson

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 12th Jul 2011, 17:00

Dr. Luit J. de Kok

University of Groningen,
The Netherlands

"Whole plant regulation of sulfur uptake and assimilation in Brassica"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 28th Jun 2011, 12:00

Prof. Dr. Karin Römisch

Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken

"Protein quality control in the secretory pathway"

Host: Prof. Dr. Sabine Strahl

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Fri, 10th Jun 2011, 10:00

Ass. Prof. Dr. Susanne Schmidt

University of Queensland, Australia

"Nitrogen in Australia: Ecosystems to molecules"

Host: Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Mon, 6th Jun 2011, 17:30

Prof. Dr. Xavier Vekemans

Laboratoire de Génétique et Evolution des Populations Végétales, Université de Lille

"Genomic signature of strong balancing selection in the self-incompatibility (S-locus) region in the genus Arabidopsis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 31st May 2011, 17:00

Prof. Dr. Jan Schirawski

Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

"How smut fungi control their host plants: From genome comparison to functional effector analysis"

Host: Prof. Dr. Sabine Strahl

COS-Lecture

INF 360, lecture hall, Tue, 19th Apr 2011, 17:00

Dr. Iris Finkemeier

Biocentre Martinsried, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München

"An emerging role for lysine acetylation of non-histone proteins in plants"

Host: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hell