Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Towards precision breeding of flowering time in wheat using FLOWERING LOCUS C with background from the model Brachypodium" "Koen Geuten" "Molecular Biotechnology of Plants and Micro-organisms" "FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and its paralogs in Arabidopsis are key regulators of cold dependent and temperature regulated flowering. Under the current threat of changing climates for cereal yield, they would be obvious candidates for crop breeding. However, these genes were until recently considered to be absent from cereal genomes and flowering time thought to be regulated completely differently. In contrast to previous beliefs, we demonstrated their presence (Ruelens et al. 2013) and found initial support for their functional similarity in the model grass Brachypodium (Sharma et al. 2016), which complements previous data in barley. This now opens the possibility of using FLC-like genes as a novel strategy in precision breeding of cereals." "The role of sugar supply and signalling in the regulation of maize leaf growth." "Gerrit Beemster" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "Plants need light to grow and how plants regulate growth in response to light is the central theme in this project. Light drives the generation of sugars by photosynthesis and sugars act as signalling molecules that regulate developmental processes including cell division and expansion. Studies on growth regulation by sugars have been done largely in Arabidopsis, but we use the maize leaf due it its larger size that allows to performe analyses of the sugar metabolism, particularly in proliferating and expanding cells that drive growth. Our preliminary data show that shading mature leaves inhibits growth of younger leaves, but shading the mature part of the growing leaf stimulates growth. Also 4 mutations of sugar metabolism genes affect leaf growth. To understand how this regulation works we study to what extent sugar is transported from source leaves and from the mature part of growing leaf (by studying transport of radioactive 11CO2 fed to different leaves. How this sugar regulates leaf growth at cellular (cell division and expansion), metabolic (different sugars and hormones); biochemical (enzyme activities) and transcriptional (mRNA )levels in the growth zone at the base of the leaf. Our combined results will lead to new knowledge about the mechanism linking genetic, molecular, cellular and physiological levels to whole organ growth rates, which can be used to improve the growth of crop species in the context of changing climate conditions." "The regulation of leaf size in maize (Zea mays): A multidisciplinary investigation of mutants with decreased leaf size." "Gerrit Beemster" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "The major share of research on maize leaf growth focuses on the impact of environmental factors. Despite their importance, these data are limited for the understanding of key regulatory components in leaf growth. Therefore, our laboratory has identified 5 unique long leaf maize lines through screening and selection of chemically mutated maize lines. Consequently, the objective of this project is the characterisation of 3 long leaf mutants to improve our understanding in leaf growth regulation. Firstly, we will try to appoint the (single) mutation that causes the long leaf phenotype. We must validate whether the hypothesised mutation indeed causes the observed long leaf phenotype by selecting/creating an independent line with a mutation in the hypothetical gene. Next to this, we will evaluate whether the mutation affects the expression of certain genes/pathways. Secondly, there is a need for a more extensive examination of the longleaf phenotype. This will be done at the cellular level (where cell division and expansion, both defining leaf growth, will be determined in more detail) and at the whole-plant level. Finally, the outcome of the previous experiments will result in new information on which we can base targeted cellular analyses, metabolite and enzyme measurements." "Effects of cadmium on growth regulation in maize leaves." "Gerrit Beemster" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "Pollution with cadmium (Cd) caused by historical industrial activity is a serious problem in the Campine region of Belgium. Cd inhibits plant growth and understanding this response may facilitate the growth of plants on polluted soils, its accumulation in and harvest of Cd-containing plant biomass. From a scientific point of view, the response of plant growth to Cd exposure is interesting, as it perturbs specific regulatory mechanisms, including cell cycle regulation, cell wall chemistry and redox regulation. Thereby, the role of these processes in organ growth regulation can be unravelled. By studying the maize leaf growth zone we can combine kinematic analyses of cell division and expansion rates with molecular and physiological studies that are not feasible in the model species Arabidopsis. Using both short- and long-term Cd exposure allows us to unravel signalling events and regulatory interactions in growth regulation. The effects on cell division will be further analysed by flowcytometry and on expansion by measuring cell wall extensibility. The underlying molecular mechanisms will be studied in each zone (division, elongation and maturation) at the transcriptome, metabolite and enzyme levels. Initially, wild-type maize lines are used. Based on the obtained results, mutants perturbed in key pathways will be studied. All data will be integrated using bio-informatics, so that a holistic view of growth regulation in general and its response to Cd in particular is obtained." "Identification of active indole compounds for development of neutraceuticals (Indoleceutics)" "Els Prinsen" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "This research project aims at developing new neutraceuticals to be used as food or feed supplements for human and veterinary use. This research has a dual aim: i) the identification and characteisation of active biomolecules in a fermented plant protein (Lianol®), and ii) the validation of the analytical methods and biomarkers to define the biological activities of these active molecule(s)." "Functionality of UV-B light gradients in Arabidopsis." "Els Prinsen" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "in this project we will study the effects of UV-B exposure on differential growth in the model plant Arabidopsis. We will investigate whether the UVB light gradient leads to a functional gradient, that eventually controls flavonoid accumulation and control hormonal responses and differential elongation. Molecular physiological, genetic and biochemical methods will be used." "Molecular and functional analyzes of lectins in Lactobacillus." "Jos Vanderleyden" "Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics" "Lectins, known as carbohydrate-binding proteins, are considered as important signal molecules, which regulate physiological processes and multicellular communities. Lactobacillus species are important beneficial microorganisms that are ubiquitously present on plants, in milk and on mucosal surfaces of animal and human host. Lectins molecules on the cell surface of the Lactobacillus strains that can directly interact with the pathogens or host cells are important for their beneficial functions. In this project we aim to functionally characterise lectin proteins form the gastrointestinal probiotic L. rhamnosus GG, the vaginal probiotic L. rhamnosus GR-1, the vaginal natural isolate L. plantarum CMPG5300 and the L. plantarum strains CMPGlp9 and CMPGlp10, which were isolated from cauliflower soils. The exact sugar/ligand specificity of the lectin molecules, their role in adhesion to variety of host cells and pathogen exclusion will be investigated. Furthermore in this project, we aim to gather more insights in genetic and functional aspects that are involved in the optimal heterologous expression and secretion of lectins by lactobacilli. We will focus on the probiotic L. rhamnosus GG and L. rhamnosus GR-1 strains, and two well-known mannose-specific lectins, i.e actinohivin and griffitsin. Ultimately this project proposal will provide better understanding of the fundamental principles governing the beneficial functions of Lactobacillus species for various niches." "The role of cell cycle inhibitors in leaf development of Arabidopsis thaliana." "Gerrit Beemster" "Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES)" "This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand Erasmus Mundus. UA provides Erasmus Mundus research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract." "Valorization of a novel small scale Arabidopsis screening assay based on molecular ISR markers and identification of new biocontrol organisms (BCOs)." "Bruno Cammue" "Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics" "Induced systemic resistance (ISR) is the defense response triggered by beneficial micro‐organisms. The ISR process has been studied intensively in the Plant‐Fungi Interactions group of the Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG‐PFI), with a focus on Trichoderma spp. as potential inducers of the ISR response. Application of Trichoderma spp. to the roots of Arabidopsis and tomato resulted in increased resistance to leaf infection by the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea, and gene expression analysis revealed several potential marker genes for ISR. Since classical disease assays are labour‐ and time‐consuming, the discovery of general ISR markers could greatly facilitate the search for novel BCOs. A plate assay based on promotor-GUS fusion was recently developed to investigate the potential of the selected ISR markers, allowing a fast and straight‐forward visual observation of the ISR response. In this project, the potential of the ISR markers will be tested in the plate assay for induction by different BCOs on the one hand, and for induced resistance against different types of pathogens on the other hand." "Tomfood. Novel Techniques for inspection and engineering of food (micro)structure based on X-ray computed tomography" "Johan Claes" "Bioengineering Technology, Geel Campus" "Porous nutrition is nutrition containing a significant amount of air. The distribution of air in the food has an effect on food quality parameters such as texture, but it is also related to the prevention of internal defects as well as to the stability of nutrition and durability.  X-ray tomography (X-ray CT) allows to visualize and quantify the internal 3D pore structure of objects in a non-destructive way."