Consortium Members

Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff

Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (GUF) Institute for Molecular Biosciences Molecular Plant Sciences Center for Membrane Proteomics Max-von-Laue-Str. 9 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany EMail: Schleiff at bio.uni-frankfurt.de Web: Homepage

The group of Enrico Schleiff works on the protein homeostasis with respect to intracellular and in planta distribution. He analyses the environmental influence on protein distribution with techniques ranging from molecular biology to bioinformatics. He introduces the expertise of in vitro characterisation of biochemical pathways and of the in vivo analysis of protein distribution pathways to SPOT-ITN.

Dr. Klaus-Dieter Scharf

The group of Klaus-Dieter Scharf has a long standing reputation on the HSF network regulating HSR and thermotolerance. He provides the experiences of a broad spectrum of methods for the structural and functional characterisation of Hsf activities on the cellular and whole plant level. This includes analyses of Hsf expression and function on protein levels, as well as of interactions within the Hsf network and with chaperones.

Prof. Dr. Celestina Mariani

University of Nijmegen (RUN) Department of Molecular Plant Physiology Institute for Water and Wetland Research Heyandaalseweg 135 6525 AJ Nijmegen The Netherlands EMail: c.mariani at science.ru.nl Web: Homepage

The group of Celestina Mariani works on plant reproduction in Solanaceous species and on the male and female side of the fertilisation process, using techniques ranging from genetics, molecular and cell biology to hormone physiology. She also analyses the molecular mechanisms of environmental stress adaptation during pollen development in tomato, using genomic tools such as AFLP, microarrays and next generation sequencing (NGS).

Dr. Ivo Rieu

University of Nijmegen (RUN) Department of Molecular Plant Physiology Institute for Water and Wetland Research Heyandaalseweg 135 6525 AJ Nijmegen The Netherlands EMail: i.rieu at science.ru.nl Web: Homepage

The group of Ivo Rieu tries to understand how plants acclimate to abiotic stressors, in particular high temperature, flooding and low oxygen conditions by making use of natural variation in tolerance traits and state-of-the-art genomics approaches to reveal the genetic, molecular and physiological networks underlying acclimation.

Dr. Nurit Firon

The Agricultural Research Organisation of Israel The Volcani Centre (ARO) Department of Vegetable Research Institute for Plant Sciences 50250 Bet Dagan Israel EMail: Vcfiron at volcani.agri.gov.il Web: Homepage

The group of Nurit Firon works on sexual plant reproduction in Solanaceae members, with emphasis on pollen biology and PTT mechanisms. Her work involves the biochemical, molecular and phenotypic characterization of pollen performance under optimal and HS conditions with respect to carbohydrate metabolism and genes involved in thermotolerance mechanisms. Using cDNA-AFLP and tomato microarrays her group created a database of genes involved in pollen HSR, which will be available for the SPOT-ITN.

Dr. Rina Iannacone

Metapontum Agrobios S.R.L. (MAB) Strada Statale Ionica 106 KM. 448,2 Frazione di Metaponto SNC 75010 Bernalda Italy EMail: Riannacone at agrobios.it Web: Homepage

Metapontum Agrobios represented by Rina Iannacone is involved in biotechnological researches since 1989 and has developed an important know-how and several transgenic products. They are experts in breeding technologies and high throughput analysis with manifold technological facilities, such as the phenomics Scanalyzer 3D platform.

Dr. Peter Winter

GenXPro GmbH (GXP) Altenhöferallee 3 60438 Frankfurt Main Germany EMail: pwinter at genxpro.de Web: Homepage

GenXPro represented by Peter Winter is a company focusing on high-throughput, open-architecture transcription and epigenome profiling technologies that are based on NGS. The genome-wide analysis of the transcriptome and methylome of plants without methodological prejudices and at unprecedented depth and accuracy for plants with and without available good quality genome sequences is their expertise.

Dr. Arnaud Bovy

Wageningen Unversity (WUR) Department of Plant Sciences Droevendaalsesteeg 1 6708 PB Wageningen The Netherlands EMail: arnaud.bovy at wur.nl Web: Homepage

The group of Arnaud Bovy studies the molecular and biochemical regulation of fruit quality-related primary and secondary metabolite pathways in tomato, by combining genetics with X-omics approaches such as metabolomics, transcriptomics and sequencing. He introduces his expertise of metabolite profiling for BIOMARKER identification, and his team will play a role in the development of thermotolerant introgression lines.

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Weckwerth

University Vienna (UNV) Department for Molecular Systems Biology Althanstr. 14 1090 Vienna Austria EMail: wolfram.weckwerth at univie.ac.at Web: Homepage

The group of Wolfram Weckwerth is one of the leading groups in the development of high throughput proteomics and metabolomics technologies for systems biology and concepts for data mining and management. He studies for example the phenotypic plasticity, stress response, growth, developmental and metabolic behaviour by highthroughput profiling using model and crop plants (e.g. tomato) with different genetic background.

Prof. Dr. Maria Luisa Chiusano

University of Studies of Naples Frederico II (UNF) Department of Soil, Plants Environmental and Animal Production Sciences Laboratory of Computer Aided Biosciences Via Universita 100 80055 Portici Italy EMail: Chiusano at unina.it Web: Homepage

The group of Maria Luisa Chiusano is involved in plant genomics and has a long term expertise in designing and implementing bioinformatics strategies for structural, functional and evolutionary analyses. As partner of the Solanaceae Genomics Network (SGN) and of the European Solanaceae genomics consortium (EU-SOL project, FP6), she contributes to the international effort for the annotation of the tomato genome and is responsible of the Italian SOLAnaceae bioinformatics platform (ISOLA; http://biosrv.cab.unina.it/isola28).

Dr. Wim Vriezen

Nunhems B.V. Molecular Breeding Nunhems Netherlands BV 6080 AA Haelen the Netherlands EMail: wim.vriezen at bayer.com Web: Homepage

As associated partner, Nunhems represented by Wim Vriezen is a subsidiary of Bayer CropScience. This company is the global specialist in vegetable genetics and services. With an extensive range of 28 crops and some 2,500 varieties, Nunhems is present in all major vegetable production areas in the world. The associated partnership will be important for education and project performance.

Progress

Visitors