Publikationen - Fraunhofer IME

The dandelion plant Taraxacum koksaghyz shows great potential as a natural rubber source in the temperate climate zone. However, there are challenges in transforming it from a wild species into a crop plant. One obstacle is the need for most T. koksaghyz plants to undergo prolonged cold exposure also known as vernalization to trigger flower development.
In collaboration with partners, researchers at Fraunhofer IME in Münster used epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis to identify candidate genes involved in controlling flower development. Understanding the flowering time control in T. koksaghyz will facilitate the selection of varieties with shorter life cycles. These varieties can help to meet the growing demand for natural rubber.

In their recent publication, scientists at Fraunhofer IME in Münster, together with colleagues from the University of Münster and Humboldt University Berlin, demonstrated that the parasitic plant Cuscuta does not require the floral inducing proteins of the host, but produces its own floral activators.
The researchers used tobacco as host plant. First, they generated non-flowering tobacco host plants by mutating the two tobacco floral activators NtFT4 and NtFT5. They allowed C. campestris to parasitize wild-type tobacco and two independent Ntft4–Ntft5– T2 lines. The wild-type plants flowered after 66 days, whereas onset of flowering had not occurred in Ntft4–Ntft5– plants by the end of the experiment (83 days). C. campestris plants parasitizing wildtype tobacco flowered after 42 days, and those parasitizing the two double mutant hosts flowered after 39 and 42 days, respectively. Further studies on the endogenous FT-FD module and other floral regulators in C. campestris and C. australis provide deeper insights into flower regulation in these fascinating parasitic plants and will help to identify upstream regulators and downstream targets.

In plants, the switch from vegetative growth to flowering must be controlled to ensure reproduction occurs when the day length indicates the most suitable time of year.
In our latest paper we look at the key regulator of photoperiod-dependent flower development: CONSTANS (CO). In our model species Nicotiana tabacum, which flowers regardless of day length, we found two homologous genes and overexpressing or mutating these genes did not indicate a major involvement in the floral transition in tobacco. Related genes were also present in tobacco’s ancestors, one of which prefers to flower during short days while the other is restricted to long days. NsCOL2 overexpression in the long-day ancestor (Nicotiana sylvestris) allowed flowering under non-inductive short-day conditions. This correlated with the expression of NsFTd, a direct activator of flower development. These results contribute to the field by showing that NsFTd is transcriptionally activated by NsCOL2 in N. sylvestris but this function seems to be lost in tobacco, revealing an evolutionary mechanism contributing to the diverse photoperiod-dependent flowering in closely related species.

Becker J, Speldrich S, Wittstock G, Noll GA, Brand I
Controlled Mechanical Actuation of Adsorbed Forisome Mechanoproteins: A Step Toward Biomolecular Devices (2023)
Advanced Functional Materials, 2312159. DOI

Wolters SM, Benninghaus VA, Roelfs KU, van Deenen N, Twyman RM, Prüfer D, Schulze Gronover C
Overexpression of a pseudo-etiolated-in-light-like protein in Taraxacum koksaghyz leads to a pale green phenotype and enables transcriptome-based network analysis of photomorphogenesis and isoprenoid biosynthesis (2023) Frontiers in Plant Science. DOI

Riekötter, J, Oklestkova, J, Muth, J, Twyman, RM, Epping, J
Transcriptomic analysis of Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) variants indicates brassinosteroid involvement in tuber development (2023) Frontiers Nutrition DOI

Böttner, L, Malacrinò, A, Schulze Gronover, C, van Deenen, N, Müller, B, Xu, S, Gershenzon, J, Prüfer, D and Huber, M
Natural rubber reduces herbivory and alters the microbiome below ground (2023) New Phytologist DOI

Noll GA, Furch AC, Rose J, Visser F, Prüfer D
Guardians of the phloem–forisomes and beyond (2022) New Phytologist. DOI

Kalischuk M., Müller B, Fusaro A.F., Wijekoon C.P., Waterhouse P.M., Prüfer D., Kawchuk L.
Amplification of cell signaling and disease resistance by an immunity receptor Ve1Ve2 heterocomplex in plants (2022) Communications Biology, 5:497 DOI

Steinmaßl M., Boudaden J., Edgue G., Freund L.J., Meyer S., Mordehay N., Soto M., Endres H.-E., Muth J., Prüfer D., Lerch W., Kutter C.
Passivated Impedimetric Sensors for Immobilization-Free Pathogen Detection by Isothermal Amplification and Melt Curve Analysis (2022) Biosensors, 12(5):261 DOI

Känel P., Noll G.A., Schroedter K., Naffin E., Kronenberg J., Busswinkel F., Twyman RM, Klämbt C., Prüfer D.
The tobacco phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein NtFT4 increases the lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster by interacting with the proteostasis network (2022) Aging DOI

Schnieder N., Känel A., Zimmermann M., Kriebs K., Witte A., Wrobel L.S., Twyman R.M., Prüfer D., Furch A.C.U., Noll G.A.
So similar yet so different: The distinct contributions of extrafascicular and fascicular phloem to transport and exudation in cucumber plants (2022) Journal of Plant Physiology, DOI

Rose J., Brand I., Bilstein-Schloemer M., Jachimska B., Twyman R.M., Prüfer D., Noll G.A.
The Ca²⁺ response of a smart forisome protein is dependent on polymerization (2022) Protein Science, DOI

Grundmann L, Känel A, Muth J, Beinecke F, Jekat M, Shen Y, Kudithipudi C, Xu D, Yang J, Warek U, Strickland J, Prüfer D, Noll GA
Tissue-specific expression of barnase in tobacco delays axillary shoot development after topping (2021) Plant Biotechnology Journal DOI

Kronenberg, J., Schrödter, K., Noll, G.A., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Känel, P.
The tobacco phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein NtFT4 simultaneously improves vitality, growth, and protein yield in human cells (2021) Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 118 (10), 3770-3786. DOI

Wollenweber, T.E., van Deenen, N., Roelfs, K.-U., Prüfer, D., Gronover, C.S.
Microscopic and transcriptomic analysis of pollination processes in self-incompatible Taraxacum koksaghyz (2021) Plants, 10 (3), art. no. 555,1-17. DOI

Vasilev, H., Šmejkal, K., Gronover, C.S., Choi, Y.H., Prüfer, D., Jankovská, D., Ionkova, I.
Flavonol glycosides from aerial parts of Astragalus thracicus Griseb (2021) Phytochemistry Letters, 41, 119-122. DOI

Solís J.L., Muth J., Canales J., Lizana C., Prüfer D., Riegel R., Behn A.
Allelic diversity of three anthocyanin synthesis genes in accessions of native Solanum tuberosum L. ssp. tuberosum at the Potato Genebank of the Universidad Austral de Chile (2021) Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, DOI

Rose, J., Müller, B., Groscurth, S., Giese, J., Eirich, J., Finkemeier, I., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
The functionality of plant mechanoproteins (forisomes) is dependent on the dual role of conserved cysteine residues (2021) International Journal of Biological Macromolecules DOI

Bröker, J.N., Müller, B., Prüfer, D., Gronover, C.S.
Combinatorial metabolic engineering in saccharomyces cerevisiae for the enhanced production of the fpp-derived sesquiterpene germacrene (2020) Bioengineering, 7 (4), art. no. 135, 1-13. DOI

Edgü, G., Freund, L.J., Hartje, S., Tacke, E., Hofferbert, H.-R., Twyman, R.M., Noll, G.A., Muth, J., Prüfer, D.
Fast, precise, and reliable multiplex detection of potato viruses by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (2020) International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21 (22), art. no. 8741, 1-19. DOI

Benninghaus, V.A., Van Deenen, N., Müller, B., Roelfs, K.-U., Lassowskat, I., Finkemeier, I., Prüfer, D., Gronover, C.S.
Comparative proteome and metabolome analyses of latex-exuding and non-exuding Taraxacum koksaghyz roots provide insights into laticifer biology (2020) Journal of Experimental Botany, 71 (4), 1278-1293. DOI

Rose, J., Visser, F., Müller, B., Senft, M., Groscurth, S., Sicking, K.F., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Identification and molecular analysis of interaction sites in the MtSEO-F1 protein involved in forisome assembly (2020) International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 144, 603-614. DOI

Schmidt, F.J., Zimmermann, M.M., Wiedmann, D.R., Lichtenauer, S., Grundmann, L., Muth, J., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
The Major Floral Promoter NtFT5 in Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Is a Promising Target for Crop Improvement (2020) Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, art. no. 1666. DOI

Pütter, K.M., van Deenen, N., Müller, B., Fuchs, L., Vorwerk, K., Unland, K., Bröker, J.N., Scherer, E., Huber, C., Eisenreich, W., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C. The enzymes OSC1 and CYP716A263 produce a high variety of triterpenoids in the latex of Taraxacum koksaghyz (2019) Scientific Reports, 9 (1), art. no. 5942. DOI

Niephaus, E., Müller, B., van Deenen, N., Lassowskat, I., Bonin, M., Finkemeier, I., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Uncovering mechanisms of rubber biosynthesis in Taraxacum koksaghyz – role of cis-prenyltransferase-like 1 protein (2019) Plant Journal, 100 (3), 591-609. DOI

Van Deenen, N., Unland, K., Prüfer, D., Gronover, C.S.
Oxidosqualene cyclase knock-down in latex of Taraxacum koksaghyz reduces triterpenes in roots and separated natural rubber (2019) Molecules, 24 (15), art. no. 2703. DOI

Wieghaus, A., Prüfer, D., Gronover, C.S.
Loss of function mutation of the Rapid Alkalinization Factor (RALF1)-like peptide in the dandelion Taraxacum koksaghyz entails a high-biomass taproot phenotype (2019) PLoS ONE, 14 (5), art. no. e0217454. DOI

Bröker, J.N., Laibach, N., Müller, B., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C. Taraxacum brevicorniculatum rubber elongation factor TbREF associates with lipid droplets and affects lipid turn-over in yeast (2018) Biotechnology Reports, 20, art. no. e00290. DOI

Martínez, M.E., Poirrier, P., Prüfer, D., Schulze, C., Jorquera, L., Ferrer, P., Díaz, K., Chamy, R.
Kinetics and modeling of cell growth for potential anthocyanin induction in cultures of Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers (Dandelion) in vitro (2018) Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 36, 15-23. DOI

Unland, K., Pütter, K.M., Vorwerk, K., van Deenen, N., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Functional characterization of squalene synthase and squalene epoxidase in Taraxacum koksaghyz (2018) Plant Direct, 2 (6), art. no. e00063 DOI

Laibach, N., Schmidl, S., Müller, B., Bergmann, M., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Small rubber particle proteins from Taraxacum brevicorniculatum promote stress tolerance and influence the size and distribution of lipid droplets and artificial poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) bodies (2018) Plant Journal, 93 (6), 1045-1061. DOI

Bröker, J.N., Müller, B., van Deenen, N., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Upregulating the mevalonate pathway and repressing sterol synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae enhances the production of triterpenes. (2018) Appl Microbiol Biotechnol DOI

Stolze, A., Wanke, A., van Deenen, N., Geyer, R., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Development of rubber-enriched dandelion varieties by metabolic engineering of the inulin pathway (2017) Plant Biotechnology Journal, 15 (6), 740-753. DOI

Pütter, K.M., van Deenen, N., Unland, K., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Isoprenoid biosynthesis in dandelion latex is enhanced by the overexpression of three key enzymes involved in the mevalonate pathway (2017) BMC Plant Biology, 17 (1), art. no. 88. DOI

Visser, F., Müller, B., Rose, J., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Forizymes-functionalised artificial forisomes as a platform for the production and immobilisation of single enzymes and multi-enzyme complexes (2016) Scientific Reports, 6, art. no. 30839. DOI

Laibach, N., Post, J., Twyman, R.M., Gronover, C.S., Prüfer, D.
The characteristics and potential applications of structural lipid droplet proteins in plants (2015) Journal of Biotechnology, 201, 15-27. DOI

Martinez, M., Poirrier, P., Chamy, R., Prüfer, D., Schulze-Gronover, C., Jorquera, L., Ruiz, G.
Taraxacum officinale and related species - An ethnopharmacological review and its potential as a commercial medicinal plant (2015) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 169, 244-262. DOI

Groscurth, S., Müller, B., Visser, F., Blob, B., Menzel, M., Rüping, B.A., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Uncertain role of MtSEO-F3 in assembly of Medicago truncatula forisomes (2014) Plant Signaling and Behavior, 9 (JUN), art. no. e29581, e29581-1-e29581-3. DOI

Hwang, Y.T., Wijekoon, C., Kalischuk, M., Johnson, D., Howard, R., Prüfer, D., Kawchuk, L.
Evolution and Management of the Irish Potato Famine Pathogen Phytophthora Infestans in Canada and the United States (2014) American Journal of Potato Research, 91 (6), 579-593. DOI

Zielonka, S., Ernst, A.M., Hawat, S., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Characterization of five subgroups of the sieve element occlusion gene family in Glycine max reveals genes encoding non-forisome P-proteins, forisomes and forisome tails (2014) Plant Molecular Biology, 86 (1-2), 51-67. DOI

Xing, S., Van Deenen, N., Magliano, P., Frahm, L., Forestier, E., Nawrath, C., Schaller, H., Gronover, C.S., Prüfer, D., Poirier, Y.
ATP citrate lyase activity is post-translationally regulated by sink strength and impacts the wax, cutin and rubber biosynthetic pathways (2014) Plant Journal, 79 (2), 270-284. DOI

Müller, B., Groscurth, S., Menzel, M., Rüping, B.A., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Molecular and ultrastructural analysis of forisome subunits reveals the principles of forisome assembly (2014) Annals of Botany, 113 (7), 1121-1137. DOI

Post, J., Eisenreich, W., Huber, C., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C.
Establishment of an ex vivo laticifer cell suspension culture from Taraxacum brevicorniculatum as a production system for cis-isoprene (2014) Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic, 103, 85-93. DOI

Fricke, J., Hillebrand, A., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Schulze Gronover, C. Abscisic acid-dependent regulation of small rubber particle protein gene expression in Taraxacum brevicorniculatum is mediated by TbbZIP1 (2013) Plant and Cell Physiology, 54 (4), 448-464. DOI

Groscurth, S., Müller, B., Schwan, S., Menzel, M., Diekstall, F., Senft, M., Kendall, A., Kommor, B.A., Neumann, U., Kalischuk, M., Kawchuk, L.M., Krzyzanek, V., Heilmann, A., Stubbs, G., Twyman, R.M., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Artificial forisomes are ideal models of forisome assembly and activity that allow the development of technical devices (2012) Biomacromolecules, 13 (10), 3076-3086. DOI

Bucsenez, M., Rüping, B., Behrens, S., Twyman, R.M., Noll, G.A., Prüfer, D.
Multiple cis-regulatory elements are involved in the complex regulation of the sieve element-specific MtSEO-F1 promoter from Medicago truncatula (2012) Plant Biology, 14 (5), 714-724. DOI

Richter, C., Dirks, M.E., Gronover, C.S., Prüfer, D., Moerschbacher, B.M.
Silencing and heterologous expression of ppo-2 indicate a specific function of a single polyphenol oxidase isoform in resistance of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (2012) Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 25 (2), 200-210. DOI

Jekat, S.B., Ernst, A.M., Zielonka, S., Noll, G.A., Prüfer, D.
Interactions among tobacco sieve element occlusion (SEO) proteins (2012) Plant Signaling and Behavior, 7 (12). DOI

Ernst, A.M., Rüping, B., Jekat, S.B., Nordzieke, S., Reineke, A.R., Müller, B., Bornberg-Bauer, E., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
The sieve element occlusion gene family in dicotyledonous plants
(2011) Plant Signaling and Behavior, 6 (1). DOI

Rüping, B., Ernst, A.M., Jekat, S.B., Nordzieke, S., Reineke, A.R., Müller, B., Bornberg-Bauer, E., Prüfer, D., Noll, G.A.
Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of the sieve element occlusion gene family in Fabaceae and non-Fabaceae plants (2010) BMC Plant Biology, 10, art. no. 219. DOI

Ritter, E., Herran, A., Valdés-Infante, J., Rodríguez-Medina, N.N., Briceño, A., Fermin, G., Sanchez-Teyer, F., O'connor-Sanchez, A., Muth, J., Boike, J., Prüfer, D., Santos, C.A., Dos Santos, I.C.N., Rodrigues, M.A., Risterucci, A.M., Billotte, N., Becker, D., Rohde, W.
Comparative linkage mapping in three guava mapping populations and construction of an integrated reference map in guava (2010) Acta Horticulturae, 849, 175-182. DOI

Lepitre, V., Nansot, G., Grangeon, R., Pomies, V., Rivallan, R., Risterucci, A.M., Valdés-Infante, J., Rodríguez-Medina, N.N., Muth, J., Boike, J., Prüfer, D., Becker, D., Rohde, W., Ritter, E., Billotte, N.
The microsatellite (SSR)/AFLP reference linkage map of guava
(2010) Acta Horticulturae, 849, 183-192. DOI

Feller, G., Kugel, A., Moonshine, D., Chalifa-Caspi, V., Scholz, M., Prüfer, D., Rabinski, T., Müller, K.J., Ofir, R.
African descents are more sensitive than European descents to the antitumor compoundsα-hederin and kalopanaxsaponin i (2010) Planta Medica, 76 (16), 1847-1851. DOI https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0030-1250061

Noll, G.A., Rüping, B., Ernst, A.M., Bucsenez, M., Twyman, R.M., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D.
The promoters of forisome genes MtSEO2 and MtSEO3 direct gene expression to immature sieve elements in Medicago truncatula and Nicotiana tabacum (2009) Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, 27 (4), 526-533. DOI

Lipinski, M., Scholz, M., Pieper, K., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D., Müller, K.J.
A squalene epoxidase from Nigella sativa participates in saponin biosynthesis and mediates terbinafine resistance in yeast (2009) Central European Journal of Biology, 4 (2), 163-169. DOI

Scholz, M., Lipinski, M., Leupold, M., Luftmann, H., Harig, L., Ofir, R., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D., Müller, K.J.
Methyl jasmonate induced accumulation of kalopanaxsaponin I in Nigella sativa (2009) Phytochemistry, 70 (4), 517-522. DOI

Nickel, H., Kawchuk, L., Twyman, R.M., Zimmermann, S., Junghans, H., Winter, S., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D.
Plantibody-mediated inhibition of the Potato leafroll virus P1 protein reduces virus accumulation (2008) Virus Research, 136 (1-2), 140-145. DOI

Müller, K.J., He, X., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D.
Constitutive knox1 gene expression in dandelion (Taraxacum officinale, Web.) changes leaf morphology from simple to compound (2006) Planta, 224 (5), 1023-1027. DOI

Müller, K.J., Lin, J., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D.
How repeated epiphylly correlates with gene expression of resident knox1 in the leaves of tobacco epiphyllous shoots (2006) Central European Journal of Biology, 1 (2), 263-274. DOI