Prof. Dr. Dietmar Geiger

Uni-Prof. Dr. Dietmar Geiger (Head)

Kerstin Neuwinger (Technical Assistant)

Dr. Tobias Maierhofer (Scientific Coworker)

Plants take up nutrients via the roots and produce photoassimilates in photosynthetically active leaves. We are interested in the uptake and translocation of nutrients as well as the redistribution of energy-rich carbohydrates derived from photosynthesis. The elucidation of the respective transport proteins using biophysical techniques enables us deep insights into the transport mechanism, the thermodynamics and the structure of ion channels and substrate carriers. The uptake and distribution of nutrients and assimilates via transport proteins are strictly regulated to ensure a demand-dependent and environmentally adjusted activity of the respective carriers and channels. To elucidate these regulatory network, we reconstitute signalling pathways in heterologous expression systems to study the regulation of individual transport proteins without the disturbance by the plant background.

Projects

• Nutrition of plants under salt stress condition

• Understanding the structure and function of sugar transporting nano-machines

• Anion channels: molecular switches in guard cells

Teaching

Publications