Roots are like human guts, new enzyme discovered, and new lab method established: Three awards for plant scientists
The German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) awards Dr Eliza Loo (Düsseldorf), Dr Henryk Straube (Hannover/Copenhagen) and Dr Martin Lewinski (Bielefeld) for their excellent research. According to Loo’s research, colonization of root microbes can be separated into different parts along the root, which resembles the human gut. Tiny amounts of rare nucleotides can now be measured thanks to Straube’s research, with which he also discovered a nucleotide-degrading enzyme. Lewinski established a lab protocol to analyse RNA-binding proteins in living plants, which now allows the study of their regulation network.
The three scientists will present their results at the Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences, in Halle (Saale) next week, where more than 600 plant scientists are expected to participate.
Microbes along plant roots are distributed non-homogenously
Dr Eliza Loo will receive this year’s Eduard Strasburger Award from the German Society of Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG). Microbiologist and plant scientist Loo discovered that root microbes are distributed non-homogenously along the longitudinal axis of the root. Similar to the root itself, the root microbiota are therefore divided into different zones despite not being identifiable by looking at the Arabidopsis plant root. As Loo and Prof. Dr Wolf Frommer describe in the journal Cell Host & Microbe root microbes influence three SWEET sugar transporters to maintain the balance of metabolite levels in the root. Changes in the root metabolite balance also change the colonization pattern of the root microbes. Different sections along plant roots resemble those sections in the guts of human and fruit flies. Similar to those in human intestines, microbiota help plants retrieve and make soil nutrients available, cope with stressors, and defend plants against diseases. Loo’s result will change the perspective in plant science, since the plant root microbiome from now on has to be considered as an organ with distinct microbial communities. This must be taken into account if microbiota are to be optimized, e.g. for improving plant health. Now Loo, as a group leader of the rice team at the Institute for Molecular Physiology at the University of Düsseldorf, investigates whether her findings are transferable to improve crops. Dr Loo will receive the Eduard Strasburger Award, which is endowed with 2,500 Euros from a foundation of the publisher Springer-Spektrum, from DBG’s president, Professor Dr Andreas Weber, on 17th September. She is invited to present her research results as a plenary lecture at this year’s Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG).
Rare metabolites measured and new enzyme discovered
Dr Henryk Straube will be awarded with the Wilhelm Pfeffer Award 2024 of the German Society of Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG). In his outstanding PhD thesis, Henryk Straube successfully combined several methods that now allow to analyse tiny amounts of rare nucleotides that are the building blocks for genetic information storage, in plant cells for the first time. Moreover, Straube also was able to measure tiny amounts of damaged metabolites such as inosine triphosphate. At the Institute of Molecular Nutrition and Biochemistry of Plants at Leibniz University of Hannover and supervised by Dr. Marco Herde and Prof. Dr Claus-Peter Witte, Germany, Straube has discovered a new enzyme, the inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase, which coordinates the degradation of damaged nucleotides. His results will improve basic research in the plant nucleotide metabolism. Now, being a postdoc at University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Straube investigates the biosynthesis of vicine und convicine, two toxic alkaloids in faba beans, a promising source of plant protein in Europe. Interestingly these two alkaloids are not derived from amino acids - like most plant alkaloids - but from nucleotides and are thus produced via a different biosynthesis pathway. Dr Straube will receive the award, endowed with 2,500 Euros, on 16th September from the president of DBG’s Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation, Professor Dr Severin Sasso. Straube is invited to present the results of his outstanding dissertation in an oral presentation in a plenary session.
New Method allows analysis of RNA-binding proteins in living plants
Dr Martin Lewinski will receive the Horst Wiehe Award 2024 of the German Society of Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) for his development of a new experimental protocol to determine binding sites of proteins binding to their target RNA. He succeeded to establish a lab method called iCLIP2 (individual nucleotide resolution crosslinking and immunoprecipitation) to determine binding sites of RNA binding proteins in live plant tissue (in vivo) at high resolution. The method offers the complete step by step instructions for the wet-lab part and bioinformatic analysis to determine the exact spots where a specific protein interacts with RNAs. The method was published in Nature Protocols, and the identification of binding sites on target RNAs now allows insights in the regulatory function of the protein. With this knowledge, developed in Prof. Dr Dorothee Staiger’s lab at Bielefeld University, current paradigms of protein-RNA interaction can now be tested or extended. Lewinski will receive the prize for promising early career plant scientists endowed with 2,000 Euros on 18th September from DBG’s General Secretary, Prof. Dr Caroline Müller. He will present his method in a plenary talk.
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More images
Photos of each of the three awardees and an additional graph of the sugar transporters can be downloaded here: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/newsroom/en-pm-2024/images-media-release-science-awards-2024
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Further Information
Since 1994 the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Eduard Strasburger Prize for exceptional and original research results. Springer Spektrum (www.springer-spektrum.de) provides the endowment of 2,500 Euros biannually. The Foundation was initiated on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the first edition of "Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen" written by Eduard Strasburger, Fritz Noll, Heinrich Schenck and A. F. Wilhelm Schimper in the year 1894. The election of the winner is reviewed by a jury consisting of the authors of the next circulation of now „Strasburger Lehrbuch der Pflanzenwissenschaften", DBG’s president and the biology planner from Springer Spektrum. See details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/strasburger-prize
The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize for an outstanding PhD thesis (dissertation) in the field of plant sciences. The prize endowment of 2,500 Euros and the award from DBG’s own Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation is intended to promote the careers of young scientists. The prize is awarded by the foundation’s board members. Details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/pfeffer-prize
The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Horst Wiehe Prize every other year for outstanding research results exclusively in the plant sciences. The prize, endowed with 2,000 Euros, is given solely to early career scientists upon receiving a doctorate or before becoming a lecturer. The prize is named after Horst Wiehe who provided an amount of money to initiate this foundation. Details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/wiehe-prize
The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) is the largest organisation for plant scientists in the German speaking area. The non-profit organisation represents plant scientists, promotes plant sciences nationally and internationally and was founded more than 140 years ago. The DBG furthers early career plant scientists and unites plant scientists of all career stages. DBG supports the scientific exchange among its more than 1,000 members. DBG is one of the founding members of the umbrella organisation for biologists in Germany, VBIO. More: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Eduard Strasburger winner: Dr Eliza Loo (Düsseldorf)
Group Leader: Rice team
Phone: +49 211 81-41608
E-mail: loo@uni-duesseldorf.de
Website: https://www.molecular-physiology.hhu.de/team-rice/mitglieder-team-rice
Wilhelm Pfeffer Award winner: Dr Hendryk Straube (Hannover/Copenhagen)
Currently:
University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
Phone: ++45 35328955
E-mail: henryk@plen.ku.dk
Horst Wiehe Award winner: Dr Martin Lewinski (Bielefeld)
Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615 Bielefeld
Phone: ++49 (0) 521 106-5639
E-mail: martin.lewinski@uni-bielefeld.de
Originalpublikation:
Loo E.P.I., Durán P, Pang TP, Westhoff P, Deng C, Durán C, Lercher M., Garido-Oter, R. & Frommer W.B. (2024) Sugar transporters spatially organize microbiota colonization along the longitudinal root axis of Arabidopsis. Cell Host Microbe 32, 543-556.e6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2024.02.014
Straube, Henryk (2023): Investigation of the metabolism of rare nucleotides in plants. Dissertation. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, 241 S., DOI: https://doi.org/10.15488/13270
Lewinski M., Brüggemann M., Köster T., Reichel, M., Bergelt, T., Meyer, K., König, J., Zarnack, K., Staiger, D. (2024): Mapping protein-RNA binding in plants with individual-nucleotide-resolution UV cross-linking and immunoprecipitation (plant iCLIP2). Nature Protocols 19, 1183–1234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-023-00935-3
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