Marc C. E. Van Montagu
Ghent University
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Primary Section: 25, Plant Biology Secondary Section: 26, Genetics Membership Type:
International Member
(elected 1986)
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Research Interests
My research interests revolve primarily around the use and development of genetical techniques to identify the molecular base of physiological responses in plants. Particular attention is given to oxidative stress signaling and to the regulatory mechanisms which control the progression through the plant cell cycle. The tools used are the Agrobacterium-mediated construction of transgenic plants and gene identification through T-DNA insertion mutagenesis or post transcriptional gene silencing. Plant genome studies include systematic sequencing of parts of the Arabidopsis genome and the DNA fingerprint analysis (AFLP) of quantitative trait loci in poplar trees. The same AFLP method is used to analyses biodiversity and gene flow in Amazonian forest trees. Pathways for secondary metabolite biosynthesis are studied by AFLP analysis of low-abundant mRNA and by two-dimensional gel analysis of proteins specifically present in the productive plant tissue.
