@article{SreeKeresztesMuellerRoeberetal.2015, author = {Sree, K. Sowjanya and Keresztes, Aron and M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Brandt, Ronny and Eberius, Matthias and Fischer, Wolfgang and Appenroth, Klaus-J.}, title = {Phytotoxicity of cobalt ions on the duckweed Lemna minor - Morphology, ion uptake, and starch accumulation}, series = {Chemosphere : chemistry, biology and toxicology as related to environmental problems}, volume = {131}, journal = {Chemosphere : chemistry, biology and toxicology as related to environmental problems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0045-6535}, doi = {10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.03.008}, pages = {149 -- 156}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Cobalt (Co2+) inhibits vegetative growth of Lemna minor gradually from 1 mu M to 100 mu M. Fronds accumulated up to 21 mg Co2+ g(-1) dry weight at 10 mu M external Co2+ indicating hyperaccumulation. Interestingly, accumulation of Co2+ did not decrease the iron (Fe) content in fronds, highlighting L. minor as a suitable system for studying effects of Co2+ undisturbed by Fe deficiency symptoms unlike most other plants. Digital image analysis revealed the size distribution of fronds after Co2+ treatment and also a reduction in pigmentation of newly formed daughter fronds unlike the mother fronds during the 7-day treatment. Neither chlorophyll nor photosystem II fluorescence changed significantly during the initial 4 d, indicating effective photosynthesis. During the later phase of the 7-day treatment, however, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency decreased in the Co2+-treated daughter fronds, indicating that Co2+ inhibits the biosynthesis of chlorophyll rather than leading to the destruction of pre-existing pigment molecules. In addition, during the first 4 d of Co2+ treatment starch accumulated in the fronds and led to the transition of chloroplasts to chloro-amyloplasts and amylo-chloroplasts, while starch levels strongly decreased thereafter. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schulte2022, author = {Schulte, Luise}, title = {Dynamics of Larix (Mill.) species in Siberia during the last 50,000 years inferred from sedimentary ancient DNA}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55878}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558782}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 121}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The deciduous needle tree larch (Larix Mill.) covers more than 80\% of the Asian boreal forests. Only a few Larix species constitute the vast forests and these species differ markedly in their ecological traits, most importantly in their ability to grow on and stabilize underlying permafrost. The pronounced dominance of the summergreen larches makes the Asian boreal forests unique, as the rest of the northern hemisphere boreal forests is almost exclusively dominated by evergreen needle-leaf forests. Global warming is impacting the whole world but is especially pronounced in the arctic and boreal regions. Although adapted to extreme climatic conditions, larch forests are sensitive to varying climatic conditions. By their sheer size, changes in Asian larch forests as range shifts or changes in species composition and the resulting vegetation-climate feedbacks are of global relevance. It is however still uncertain if larch forests will persist under the ongoing warming climate or if they will be replaced by evergreen forests. It is therefore of great importance to understand how these ecosystems will react to future climate warmings and if they will maintain their dominance. One step in the better understanding of larch dynamics is to study how the vast dominant forests developed and why they only established in northern Asia. A second step is to study how the species reacted to past changes in the climate. The first objective of this thesis was to review and identify factors promoting Asian larch dominance. I achieved this by synthesizing and comparing reported larch occurrences and influencing components on the northern hemisphere continents in the present and in the past. The second objective was to find a possibility to directly study past Larix populations in Siberia and specifically their genetic variation, enabling the study of geographic movements. For this, I established chloroplast enrichment by hybridization capture from sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) isolated from lake sediment records. The third objective was to use the established method to track past larch populations, their glacial refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around 21,000 years before present (ka BP), and their post-glacial migration patterns. To study larch promoting factors, I compared the present state of larch species ranges, areas of dominance, their bioclimatic niches, and the distribution on different extents and thaw depths of permafrost. The species comparison showed that the bioclimatic niches greatly overlap between the American and Asian species and that it is only in the extremely continental climates in which only the Asian larch species can persist. I revealed that the area of dominance is strongly connected to permafrost extent but less linked to permafrost seasonal thaw depths. Comparisons of the paleorecord of larch between the continents suggest differences in the recolonization history. Outside of northern Asia and Alaska, glacial refugial populations of larch were confined to the southern regions and thus recolonization could only occur as migration from south to north. Alaskan larch populations could not establish wide-range dominant forest which could be related to their own genetically depletion as separated refugial population. In Asia, it is still unclear whether or not the northern refugial populations contributed and enhanced the postglacial colonization or whether they were replaced by populations invading from the south in the course of climate warming. Asian larch dominance is thus promoted partly by adaptions to extremely continental climates and by adaptations to grow on continuous permafrost but could be also connected to differences in glacial survival and recolonization history of Larix species. Except for extremely rare macrofossil findings of fossilized cones, traditional methods to study past vegetation are not able to distinguish between larch species or populations. Within the scope of this thesis, I therefore established a method to retrieve genetic information of past larch populations to distinguish between species. Using the Larix chloroplast genome as target, I successfully applied the method of DNA target enrichment by hybridization capture on sedaDNA samples from lake records and showed that it is able to distinguish between larch species. I then used the method on samples from lake records from across Siberia dating back up to 50 ka BP. The results allowed me to address the question of glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization mode in Siberian larch species. The analyzed pattern showed that LGM refugia were almost exclusively constituted by L. gmelinii, even in sites of current L. sibirica distribution. For included study sites, L. sibirica migrated into its extant northern distribution area only in the Holocene. Consequently, the post-glacial recolonization of L. sibirica was not enhanced by northern glacial refugia. In case of sites in extant distribution area of L. gmelinii, the absence of a genetic turn-over point to a continuous population rather than an invasion of southern refugia. The results suggest that climate has a strong influence on the distribution of Larix species and that species may also respond differently to future climate warming. Because species differ in their ecological characteristics, species distribution is also relevant with respect to further feedbacks between vegetation and climate. With this thesis, I give an overview of present and past larch occurrences and evaluate which factors promote their dominance. Furthermore, I provide the tools to study past Larix species and give first important insights into the glacial history of Larix populations.}, language = {en} } @article{ScarpeciZanorMuellerRoeberetal.2013, author = {Scarpeci, Telma E. and Zanor, Maria I. and M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Valle, Estela M.}, title = {Overexpression of AtWRKY30 enhances abiotic stress tolerance during early growth stages in Arabidopsis thaliana}, series = {PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY}, volume = {83}, journal = {PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY}, number = {3}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {DORDRECHT}, issn = {0167-4412}, doi = {10.1007/s11103-013-0090-8}, pages = {265 -- 277}, year = {2013}, abstract = {AtWRKY30 belongs to a higher plant transcription factor superfamily, which responds to pathogen attack. In previous studies, the AtWRKY30 gene was found to be highly and rapidly induced in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves after oxidative stress treatment. In this study, electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that AtWRKY30 binds with high specificity and affinity to the WRKY consensus sequence (W-box), and also to its own promoter. Analysis of the AtWRKY30 expression pattern by qPCR and using transgenic Arabidopsis lines carrying AtWRKY30 promoter-beta-glucuronidase fusions showed transcriptional activity in leaves subjected to biotic or abiotic stress. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants constitutively overexpressing AtWRKY30 (35S::W30 lines) were more tolerant than wild-type plants to oxidative and salinity stresses during seed germination. The results presented here show that AtWRKY30 is responsive to several stress conditions either from abiotic or biotic origin, suggesting that AtWRKY30 could have a role in the activation of defence responses at early stages of Arabidopsis growth by binding to W-boxes found in promoters of many stress/developmentally regulated genes.}, language = {en} } @article{SakurabaBalazadehTanakaetal.2012, author = {Sakuraba, Yasuhito and Balazadeh, Salma and Tanaka, Ryouichi and M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Tanaka, Ayumi}, title = {Overproduction of Chl b retards senescence through transcriptional reprogramming in arabidopsis}, series = {Plant \& cell physiology}, volume = {53}, journal = {Plant \& cell physiology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0032-0781}, doi = {10.1093/pcp/pcs006}, pages = {505 -- 517}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Leaf senescence is a developmentally and environmentally regulated process which includes global changes in gene expression. Using Arabidopsis as a model, we modified Chl arrangement in photosystems by overexpressing the catalytic domain (the C domain) of chlorophyllide a oxygenase (CAO) fused with the linker domain (the B domain) of CAO and green fluorescent protein (GFP). In these plants (referred to as the BCG plants for the B and C domains of CAO and GFP), the Chl a/b ratio was drastically decreased and Chl b was incorporated into core antenna complexes. The BCG plants exhibited a significant delay of both developmental and dark-induced leaf senescence. The photosynthetic apparatus, CO2 fixation enzymes and the chloroplast structure were lost in wild-type plants during senescence, while BCG plants retained them longer than the wild type. Large-scale quantitative real-time PCR analyses of 1,880 transcription factor (TF) genes showed that 241 TFs are differentially expressed between BCG plants and wild-type plants at senescence, similar to 40\% of which are known senescence-associated genes (SAGs). Expression profiling also revealed the down-regulation of a large number of additional non-TF SAGs. In contrast, genes involved in photosynthesis were up-regulated, while those encoding Chl degradation enzymes were down-regulated in BCG plants. These results demonstrate that alteration of pigment composition in the photosynthetic apparatus retards senescence through transcriptional reprogramming.}, language = {en} } @article{MuellerRoeberBalazadeh2014, author = {M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Balazadeh, Salma}, title = {Auxin and its role in plant senescence}, series = {Journal of plant growth regulation}, volume = {33}, journal = {Journal of plant growth regulation}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0721-7595}, doi = {10.1007/s00344-013-9398-5}, pages = {21 -- 33}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Leaf senescence represents a key developmental process through which resources trapped in the photosynthetic organ are degraded in an organized manner and transported away to sustain the growth of other organs including newly forming leaves, roots, seeds, and fruits. The optimal timing of the initiation and progression of senescence are thus prerequisites for controlled plant growth, biomass accumulation, and evolutionary success through seed dispersal. Recent research has uncovered a multitude of regulatory factors including transcription factors, micro-RNAs, protein kinases, and others that constitute the molecular networks that regulate senescence in plants. The timing of senescence is affected by environmental conditions and abiotic or biotic stresses typically trigger a faster senescence. Various phytohormones, including for example ethylene, abscisic acid, and salicylic acid, promote senescence, whereas cytokinins delay it. Recently, several reports have indicated an involvement of auxin in the control of senescence, however, its mode of action and point of interference with senescence control mechanisms remain vaguely defined at present and contrasting observations regarding the effect of auxin on senescence have so far hindered the establishment of a coherent model. Here, we summarize recent studies on auxin-related genes that affect senescence in plants and highlight how these findings might be integrated into current molecular-regulatory models of senescence.}, language = {en} }