Head: Marcel Quint

For detailed information on our group see the Quint Lab website at openwetware.org.

HOW do organisms adapt to the environment and how do they react to different biotic and abiotic stimuli?

Major players in the conversion of such stimuli into cellular responses are hormones acting as signaling molecules. Our lab is primarily interested in understanding the genetics and molecular biology of auxin and other plant hormone responses in the tiny weed Arabidopsis thaliana and related Brassicaceae. To learn more, we make use of naturally occurring genetic variation for plant responses to hormone stimuli. We exploit this kind of genetic variation between populations of Arabidopsis thaliana and between related species of the Brassicaceae family. Another major long-term goal of our research is the application of this knowhow to auxin-regulated traits of agronomic importance.

We apply mostly genomics approaches, such as: 

• forward genetic screens and reverse genetics
• whole genome expression profiling
• quantitative genetics; qtl mapping
• evolutionary and population genomics
• comparative genomics

Our independent junior research group is part of a larger research network that deals with structures and mechanisms of biological information processing, the so-called Exzellenznetzwerk für Biowissenschaften.