Project groups

• C1 | Microevolutionary adaptation to a changing climate
  • Prof. Dr. Marco Thines
  • Prof. Dr. Klaus Schwenk
• C2 | Climate Change and Genetic Diversity
  • Dr. Carsten Nowak
  • Prof. Dr. Bruno Streit
• C3 | Responses to climate change in interaction with other stressors
  • Prof. Dr. Jörg Oehlmann
  • Dr. Jörg Römbke
• C4 | Reaction of forest ecosystems to climate change
  • Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Brüggemann
  • Prof. Dr. Imke Schmitt

C6.1 | C4-GRASSES IN WEST AFRICA: EVOLUTION, RANGE SHIFTS AND PHYSIOLOGY UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE AND ALTERED LAND USE

In this project the genus Panicum serves as a model system including economically important species (e.g. Panicum laetum as a crop and pasture grass). In selected Panicum species of the three different types of C4 photosynthesis (NADP-ME, NAD-ME and PCK-type), the biochemical properties of the C4 key enzyme PEPC and the corresponding genomic sequences including the regulatory regions are determined. Experiments under drought stress provide data on the efficiency of the enzyme under conditions of water shortage. The molecular data will also yield insight into the evolution of the three different metabolic types of photosynthesis within the genus.

Team

PD Dr. Thomas Berberich, Researcher
Dr. Ahmed Ashoub, Researcher
Tanja Zimmermann, Ph.D. student

Publications

Ashoub, A., Beckhaus, T., Berberich, T., Karas, M. & W. Brüggemann (2013) : Comparative analysis of barley leaf proteome as affected by drought stress. - Planta, DOI 10.1007/s00425-012-1798-4

Dias, M. & W. Brüggemann (2010) : Limitations of photosynthesis in Phaseolus vulgaris under drought stress: gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence and Calvin cycle enzymes. - Photosynthetica 48 (1): 96-102.

Zimmermann, T., Bocksberger, G., Brüggemann, W. & T. Berberich (2013) : Phylogenetic relationship and molecular taxonomy of African grasses of the genus Panicum inferred from four chloroplast DNA-barcodes and nuclear gene sequences. - Journal of Plant Research, DOI: 10.1007/s10265-012-0538-y