Molecular Plant Biology
The main activities of the Department of Molecular Plant Biology are basic and applied biotechnology research that are important for sustainable use of our biological resources. The main research focus is on molecular studies of plant-pathogen interactions in forestry, horticulture, farming and other agricultural crops.
Basic and applied research
The department is responsible for molecular plant biology and molecular plant pathology research at NIBIO. Research and development of molecular detection methods for pathogens are important tasks, where Genomics, Transcriptomics, Meta-barcoding and Bioinformatics are important aspects.
The department has a well-educated and dedicated staff of 21 scientific researchers and engineers.
We have ongoing projects concerning:
- Molecular studies of defense mechanism in plants
- Detection and diagnostics of plant pathogens using molecular techniques
- Genome and transcriptome studies of both plants and microorganisms
- Epigenetic studies of climatic adaptation in plants
- Studies of priming of defense responses in plants
- CRISPR modification for more resistant plants
- Development of molecular markers for applied plant breeding
- Identification of bioactive substances from plants planter
We use methods such as Genomics, Transcriptomics, Meta-Barcoding and other sequencing approaches, Laser Capture Microscopy (LCM), Plant transformation, CRISPR, Plan physiological methods and Bioinformatics.
The department has broad collaboration with a number of international partners.
Contacts