Molecular Cell Biology (Prof. Dr. Peter Nick)

Fritz-Haber-Weg, Gbd. 30.43 (Biology Tower), 5. floor. e-mail. How to find us

Interview in Biospektrum

Living is Searching (Springer-Nature 2023)

Secretary

• Herr Jochen Krüger, R501, Tel. 0721-608 42142

INSTITUTE SEMINARS

the journal with the longest tradition in cell biology (Springer-Nature). We publish it. more...

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Who is the "true" Moringa?

"Superfood" is a huge market, often with growth rates in the tens of percent. A wealthy, but ageing society with a pronounced awareness for health is willing to pay high prices for these mostly exotic plant products. Many of these plants are medicinally used in their region of origin - a cultural context that has developed over a long time, ensures that they do not bring harm, but benefit. Globalisation has separated those plants from this context. This leads to misunderstandings, confusion, but also intentional adulteration. Since these plants do not have a tradition of use in our cultures, also our authorities fail to cope. Since many years, we have been using carefully verified reference plants and so-called genetic barcodes to develop methods able to authenticate such products. Currently we focus on Moringa  - Reason: this medicinal plant is rooted in the Indian Ayurveda, but has related species in Africa. The prices paid for Moringa in Europe are of astronomic level in the perspective of an African smallholder. Therefore, more and more farmers begin to cultivate Moringa - of course African species of Moringa. The effect of this medicinal plant, which is also known under the name Horseradish Tree, depends on active compounds, the glucosinolates. The profile of these compounds differs considerably between species, the line between healing and harming is very thin. We have now developed a PCR-based method to distinguish "true" Moringa rapidly and reliably from such surrogates. We hope that this contribution to consumer safety will soon be adopted by the authorities in charge of food safety.

208. Wetters S, Sahi V, Brosche L, Häser, A, Nick P (2024) Monitoring Indian “Superfood” Moringa oleifera Lam. – species-specific PCR-fingerprint-based authentication for more consumer safety. NPJ Science of Food 8, 21 - pdf

PRESS RELEASE OF THE KIT

The Origin of Grapevine

Four years of hard work, almost 4000 genomes - the fruit of this effort has now been published in Science. The Wild Grapevine Collection of the KIT had an important role here. It could be shown that Grapevine was domesticated twice independently, once in the Caucasus to produce wine, a second time in the Near East to get table grapes. During its migration to the West, there were numerous love affairs with local wild grapevines, giving rise to the large diversity of grapevines. This project joined people from 16 countries, despite sometimes difficult political circumstances and allows a deep look into the complex history of this crop plant that not only founded civilisations, but was also one of the first globally traded goods, breaching the borders of geography, language, and religion. The treasure of knowledge generated in this project has not even been scratched - during the time, when grapevine, by an interplay between climatic disruptions and human migration, conquered many regions, it collected genes that help to cope with adverse conditions. These genes can help now to safeguard viticulture against the consequences of climate change - this is exactly, what we do now in our Interreg Upper Rhine project Kliwiresse. Seminar as part of the Saturday University Freiburg.

Science article

Interview with the Washington Post

Press release by the KIT

Youtube on the impact of the project for the region

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The new "Strasburger"

127 years ago Eduard Strasburger founded the textbook of botany, which appeared now in the 38. edition - this makes the "Strasburger" the biology textbook with the longest history. Peter Nick contributed a couple of 100 pages to the topics structure and function of the plant body and plant development. The "Strasburger" pursues the goal to depict the entire knowledge on plants, comprehensively, up-to-date, and at the same time filtered. Even though it had never been easier to acquire information, the problem is progressively to filter relevant from irrelevant. Textbooks are, therefore, not outdated, but more important than ever. more...

FKI

The State Teaching Award 2015 was given to Peter Nick and Mathias Gutmann. The money was used to found the Forum. Beyond faculties and disciplines, we debate here on controversial topics. In WS 2024-2025 we look at sustainability. more...

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Switch Actin With Light

Actin, the protein forming our muscle, is also found in plants. This is actually non-intuitive, since plants do not move by muscle force. Since three decades we have tried to understand, for what purpose plant cells use actin. The answer is that actin has rather a sensory function, enabling cells to measure their integrity. In the past, we searched for ways, in cooperation with the lab of Anne Ulrich at the IBG, to modulate the response of actin by artificial peptides that can penetrate plant membranes. One of these peptides, BP100, was now altered in a way that it can be controlled by light. This led to the question, whether this allows to steer the behaviour of actin by light. We tested this in tobacco cells, where actin has become visible by virtue of a fluorescent protein, such that its response can be followed microscopically in living cells. In fact, we could elicit, in cells treated with this switchable peptide, by light a reorganisation of actin filaments. Thus, it is possible to deceive these cells, pretending that their membrane is still intact, although the peptide has already penetrated. Using this technology, it has become possible, without the need for genetic engineering, to manipulate living cells by optogenetics.

Publication

207. Hrebonkin A, Afonin S, Nikitjuka A, Borysov OV, Leitis G, Babii O, Koniev S, Lorig T, Grage SL, Nick P, Ulrich AS, Jirgensons A, Komarov IV (2024) Spiropyran-based photoisomerizable a-amino acid for membrane-active peptide modification. Chem Eur J, doi 10.1002/chem.202400066 - pdf

How Can Plants Distinguish Stress Qualities?

Plants cannot run away, when they do not like their environment. They need to adapt. The ability to recognise and to appropriately respond to challenges is, thus, the central strategy for plant survival. We need to understand this as to prepare for climate change. Meanwhile, this has reached public consciousness. However, it is mostly unclear, how plant distinguish stress qualities. When different stresses act in concert, they even have to render decisions. This happens, for instance, during a hot summer day  - shall the leaves be cooled by transpiration, or shall the water rather be saved up to get through an ensuing drought? How can plants decide without a brain? For us, this world is so strange that we do not understand it. Here, our new concept starts - in brief, we propose that there are a handful of signals that mean, by recombination, different qualities of stress and, therefore, evoke different responses. Actually quite comparable to human language - the "words" are these signalling molecules, the "grammar" is their temporal sequence and combination. Using concrete examples we demonstrate that this idea works and develop its evolutionary context. While this concept may appear unusual, it leads to clear implications that can be tested experimentally, and it yields explanations to explain the complex stress responses of plants.

Publication

[63] Nick P (2023) Towards a Grammar of Plant Stress – Modular Signalling Conveys Meaning. Theor Exp Plant Physiol. doi 10.1007/s40626-023-00292-2 - pdf

From the Root Chip to the Bioherbicide

Plants have sly old ears. An estimated million compounds occur only in plants and have the task to convince other life forms to do work for plants. Often, cellular signalling is hijacked. We humans are no exception – whether it is caffeine, opium, or Cannabis, specific plant compounds play tricks to our neural system. One particular weird case of plant manipulation could now be uncovered. Our Mints beat competitors by a „Deathly After Eight“. Why does this not damage the sender himself – here the compounds are most abundant? Using Spearmint as paradigm, we could demonstrate that the scent, carvone, persuades root cells of the target to dissolve its microtubules and initiate a ritual form of suicide. Changing minute details on fhte molecule eliminates this effect. Thus, carvone is not a poison, but a persuasive signal. Obviously, this signal can bind to a specific receptor that otherwise has the task to ward off microbial attacks. In that context, cellular suicide makes perfectly sense. By its sacrifice, the infected cell kills the intruder and protects the others. We suspect that Mints have modified their own receptor, such that carvone cannot bind. Signals that eliminate competitors – this has, of course, considerable potential for the development of novel bioherbicides. In the next step we want to find out, who listens to the signal and identify the receptor. Schritt wollen wir nun herausfinden, wer auf dieses Signal hört. This sophisticated strategy could be uncovered by our project DialogProTec (Science Offensive of Interreg Upper Rhine) during an interdisciplinary cooperation with partners at the Campus North IMT, Université de Strasbourg, the Institute for Biological Agents in Kaiserslautern, the University of Freiburg, and the Research Institute for biological Agriculture in Frick and publish in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

Publication

210. Hering N, Schmit AC, Herzog E, Corbin LT, Schmidt-Speicher L, Ahrens R, Fauconnier ML, Nick P (2024) Spearmint Targets Microtubules by (−)-Carvone. Hort Res. doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhae151 - pdf