Projects

This project wants to investigate how the fiber yield and quality of hemp can be controlled for use in high-quality textile applications. The emphasis will be on optimizing the cultivation technique, harvesting method including further processing on existing flax processing technology and the retting process, a key process that depends on various microbial populations in the field to break down pectin and other components that bind the fibers ...

This project was initiated in response to a request of several growers of outdoor ornamental plants, to grow high quality plants in an alternative way, with a reduced amount of chemical plant protection products. Because most growers of outdoor ornamentals still rely on preventative fungicide applications for disease control and chemical pest treatments based on damage symptoms, alternatives are needed. This project will focus on developing ...

It is increasingly recognized that the functioning of rural ecosystems is threatened by farmland biodiversity loss. The reinforcement of functional agro-biodiversity (FAB) and related services require measures on the landscape scale, which is nowadays no common practice and in need of scientific support at the landscape scale. The overall objective of this project is to deliver quantitative support for an improved spatial implementation of ...

This LA traject is a follow-up of project LATR-135079, with the general objective of further exploiting the (ecological) "Attract & Kill" (A&K) control potential against D. suzukii, and fine-tuning its practical application.

Plants suffer from all kinds of biotic and abiotic stress conditions, which are often regulated by the plant hormone ethylene. One of the most enigmatic abiotic stress responses is epinasty, which is the downwards bending of the leaves. Leaf epinasty is observed in many important crops including tomato, and is often the result of root hypoxia and/or salinity stress. Our preliminary results have showed that epinasty is developmentally ...

The success of plant tissue culture technology stems from the remarkable competence of specific
cell types to initiate cell divisions and form primordia (immature meristems) that generate organs
such as roots and shoots. De novo shoot organogenesis occurs upon administering the appropriate
sequence and dose of the hormones auxin and cytokinin. The interplay and opposing functions of
auxin and cytokinin has been enigmatic ...

How plants grow from a small seed to their final stature appeals to the imagination of many people.
Plants are indispensable for our daily needs, therefore, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms
that drive plant growth and identify molecular links between genes that enhance final organ size. In
this project, we will study the central growth regulator DA2. DA2 limits leaf and seed size in
Arabidopsis and rice and its ...

Recent developments in several omics platforms have made it possible to generate huge amounts
of genetic data. However, when trying to unravel how a genotype translates into a phenotype,
research often returns to traditional and laborious methods, and GxE interaction remains difficult
to detect. Ecophysiological models can quantify the effect of an environment on a phenotype, but
incorporation of genetic data within these ...