Botany

The Botany research group, led by  Prof. Dr. Sabine Zachgo, investigates the developmental processes and innovations of plants that have resulted in the enormous diversity of land plants and adaptations to variable living conditions.

Genetics and evolution of plant diversity

Unlike animals, land plants are sessile and firmly anchored in the soil. Therefore, plants cannot escape from changing environmental conditions or predators. Land plants evolved over 450 million years ago from an algal ancestor living in fresh water and thus had to overcome new challenges such as drought or flooding stress. Mosses are therefore particularly interesting because this group of plants was the first to adapt permanently to a life on land with new and variable stress factors. In this way, they created the conditions for all other terrestrial life.

In the course of land plant evolution, vascular plants formed novel adaptations to different habitats and environmental conditions. Flowering plants diversified very successfully: bodyplans, reproductive mechanisms and metabolic processes became increasingly complex, enabling this most species-rich land plant group to thrive in all habitats on earth.

Focusing on the mechanisms of adaptability

The Botany research group focuses on the question: “Which mechanisms control the development of the enormous diversity and adaptability of land plants?”

To this end, we are investigating the functions of transcription factors and regulatory networks in informative land plants from mosses and flowering plants. Our new moss model system from the Botanical Garden is the amphibious liverwort Riccia fluitans. The developmental plasticity of this moss enables a single plant to adapt succesfully to prolonged droughts as well as floodings – events that are occurring more and more frequently on Earth due to climate change.