A current study by scientists of the University of Bonn and Southwest University in China sheds light on an unusual interdependence: Maize can attract special soil bacteria that, in turn, help the plants to grow better. In the long term, the results could be used to breed new varieties that use less fertilizer and therefore have less impact on the environment. The study is published in the prestigious journal Nature Plants.

In a joint effort with the plant nutrition group of Xinping Chen from the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences of Southwest University in China and scientists from 16 universities and institutes, our recent work is now online in Nature Plants.

Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler der Universität Bonn provozieren natürliche Erbgutveränderungen in Maispflanzen: Mit einem Enzym aktivieren sie „springende Gene“, die die Sequenz der Keimlinge verändern. Inzwischen haben sie eine riesige Datenbank mit möglichen Mutationen aufgebaut. Sie kann dazu beitragen, die Funktionen der Maisgene aufzuklären und damit eine Grundlage für künftige Züchtungen der wichtigen Kulturpflanze zu legen.

The latest BonnMu release (as of 08-17-2020) adds > 5,000 genes tagged by Mu transposons. Our BonnMu collection is still expanding to archive genes tagged by germinal Mu insertions.

C. Marcon, F. Hochholdinger and colleagues published a research article in Plant Physiology on BonnMu: the novel Europe based Mutator (Mu) transposon insertional library.

Baldauf and Hochholdinger published a research article in the Journal of Experimental Botany on the robustness of hybrid-associated gene expression patterns during primary root development.

Our former master students Verena Müller, Yan Naing Win and Annika Kortz attended the annual graduate celebrations of the University of Bonn. All three continue their work in our group as PhD students.

Frank Hochholdinger and Peng Yu visited their collaborator Xinping Chen at Southwest University (SWU).