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Dirk Inzé
Systems Biology of Yield
VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, UGent
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Dirk Inzé
PhD: Univ. of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, '84
Research Director INRA, Paris, France, '90-'98
Founder of CropDesign, '98
Scientific Director, Dept. of Plant Systems Biology since 2002
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e-mail
phone +32 9 331 38 06
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Current team members
Group leader: Dirk Inzé
Postdoctoral scientists: Aleksandra Skirycs, Bram Slabbinck, Elena Babiychuk, Hilde Nelissen, Jérôme Martin, Joke Baute, Nathalie Gonzalez, Nubia Eloy, Stefanie De Bodt
Ph.D. Students: Bart Rymen, Frederik Coppens, Hannes Claeys, Hannes Vanhaeren, Jasper Candaele, Liesbeth Vercruyssen, Lieven Baeyens, Megan Ladd, Stijn Dhondt, Wannes Voorend
Visiting young scientist: Edoardo Bertolini
Support personnel: Dirk Van Haerenborgh, Els Bastien, Jolien De Block, Katrien Maleux, Liesbeth De Milde, Mattias Vermeersch, Twiggy Van Daele
Keywords
systems biology, yield, biomass, Arabidopsis, brachypodium
Science
The demand for more plant derived products has spectacularly increased, the reason for which are well known. It is hard to fathom, but in the coming decades 3 billion additional people will have to be fed while using less arable land. In parallel, living standards will continue to rise in many developing countries where consumption of animal products is burgeoning, again requiring a larger input of plant-derived feed. Plants also start to play a major role to supply our ever-growing energy needs. To cope with these major challenges, a profound increase in crop yield will have to be achieved.
Biomass production is a multi-factorial system in which processes, such as photosynthesis, water and mineral uptake, mobilization of starch and lipid reserves, and stress tolerance, are fed into the activity of meristems that give rise to new cells, tissues, and organs. Whereas a considerable amount of ecophysiological research has been performed on yield performance of crops little is known about the molecular networks underpinning yield. Many genes have been described in Arabidopsis that, when mutated or ectopically expressed, form larger structures, such as leaves or roots. These "intrinsic yield genes", are involved in many different processes whose interrelationship in mostly unknown. Other genes referred to as "stress tolerance genes" reduce the negative effects of adverse environmental conditions such as drought on plant growth.
It is our ambition to decipher, using a systems biology approach, the molecular networks underpinning yield under both optimal as well as drought stress conditions in Arabidopsis as well as the model grass Brachypodium. Systems biology will ultimately provide a holistic view enabling the optimization of plant productivity.
Selected Publications
Skirycz A, De Bodt S, Obata T, De Clercq I, Claeys H, De Rycke R, Andriankaja M, Van Aken O, Van Breusegem F, Fernie A, Inzé D
Developmental stage specificity and the role of mitochondrial metabolism in the response of Arabidopsis leaves to prolonged mild osmotic stress
PLANT PHYSIOL 152, 226-44, 2010
Vanhaeren H, Gonzalez N, Inzé D
Hide and seek: Uncloaking the vegetative shoot apex of Arabidopsis thaliana
PLANT J 63, 541-548, 2010
Skirycz A, Inzé D
More from less: plant growth under limited water
CURR OPIN BIOTECH 21, 197-203, 2010
Dhondt S, Vanhaeren H, Van Loo D, Cnudde V, Inzé D
Plant structure visualization by high-resolution X-ray computed tomography
TRENDS PLANT SCI 15, 419-422, 2010
Gonzalez N, Beemster G, Inzé D
David and Goliath: what can the tiny weed Arabidopsis teach us to improve biomass production in crops?
CURR OPIN PLANT BIOL 12, 157-64, 2009
Search Publications
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