Role on strigolactones in the adaption of plants to their environment

Relator: Harro Bouwmeester – University of Amsterdam

Harro Bouwmeester is the leader of the Plant Hormone Biology group at the University of Amsterdam. His group studies the role of plant hormones and other signalling molecules in the communication of plants with beneficial and harmful organisms, particularly in the rhizosphere. For example, they  study the exudation by plants of strigolactones into the rhizosphere to signal host presence to the symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the abuse of this signalling relation by parasitic plants that use the same molecules for host detection. The fact that the strigolactones also have an endogenous signalling function as new class of plant hormones, regulating root and shoot architecture, makes this interaction even more intriguing. Important aspects of his work on communication are how these signalling molecules are biosynthesised and perceived, how their production is regulated, and what happens to the interaction if their production is altered.