SFB 607:  Growth or Parasite Defense? Competition for Resources in Economic Plants from Agronomy and Forestry

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Geosciences
• Term: from 1998 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5482556

The collaborative research centre 607 aims at clarifying the regulatory mechanisms of resource allocation and partitioning between and within economic plants from agronomy and forestry. Emphasis is given to the analysis of resource-based cost/benefit balances, as resulting from competitive interactions between plants, host/parasite interactions and mycorrhizal relationships in the rhizosphere. The concept concentrates on the 'dilemma' of plants in adjusting their primary and secondary metabolism between the demands for growth and competitiveness in resource sequestration versus the defense capacity against parasite attack, regarding the efficiencies in sequestration and retainment of resources as the core of individual plant fitness. The central hypothesis is being examined that stimulation of parasite defense is inherently related, in terms of a trade-off, to restrictions in growth and competitiveness (i.e. resource sequestration capacity). The extent of common functional principles is to be identified within a broad spectrum of plant life forms (herbaceous versus woody), ontogenetic stages and growth/site conditions from the areas of forestry, pomology, pasture science and agronomy. The analysis is based on the combination of molecular, biochemical and ecophysiological methodologies, and findings are being scaled, across the level of the 'whole plant', to the stand level by means of forestry and agronomy-related approaches as well as mechanistic modeling concepts. Gain in basic knowledge is achieved as a pre-requisite for preventing risks of biotic and abiotic stress and reducing management requirements in economic plant systems.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Comparative transcription and proteom expression profiling in herbaceous and woody plants upon abiotic/biotic stress (Project Heads Ernst, Dieter ;  Müller-Starck, Gerhard )
• A4 - Veränderungen von Photosynthese und Membranfunktionen unter dem Einfluß von Luftbelastungen und erhöhter N-Versorgung bei Buchen und Fichten (Project Head Lütz, Cornelius )
• A5 - Einfluß von N, CO2, Ozon und Pilzbefall auf die Nahrungsqualität von Buche und Apfel für phyllophage Insekten: Larvenzuwachs, Fraßpräferenz, phenolische Blattinhaltsstoffe, Verwertung von Kohlenhydraten und Proteinen (Project Head Schopf, Reinhard )
• A06 - Analysis of physiological reaction patterns and growth parameters of herbaceous and woody plants under abiotic and biotic stresses (Project Heads Oßwald, Ph.D., Wolfgang ;  Treutter, Dieter )
• A7 - Einfluss von CO2 und N-Düngung auf das Resistenzverhalten von Kartoffelpflanzen gegenüber Phytophthora infestans und Altemaria solani (Project Heads Elstner, Erich F. ;  Habermeyer, Johann ;  Heiser, Ingrid )
• A08 - Einfluss der N-Ernährung auf das Abwehrverhalten des Apfels (Malus domestica) gegenüber Venturia inaequalis: Analyse der Genexpression sowie der Metabolomik der Sekundärstoffe (Project Heads Mornau, Max ;  Treutter, Dieter )
• A09 - Genom- und Proteomanalysen an Phytophthora-infizierten Buchen; DNA-Markerentwicklung und Genexpression (Project Heads Müller-Starck, Gerhard ;  Schlink, Katja )
• A10 - Stickstoff als exogener Einflussfaktor auf das von Phytophthora infestans induzierte Genexpressionsmuster bei Kartoffeln (Project Heads Ros, Barbara ;  Wenzel, Gerhard )
• B01 - Allometry and space sequestration of herbaceous and woody plants. Scaling from plant to stand level (Project Head Pretzsch, Hans )
• B02 - Control of space occupation and space exploitation by photomorphogenetic relevant radiation properties (Project Head Menzel, Annette )
• B3 - Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung der Raumbesetzung durch ober- und unterirdische Dendromasse mittels eines zerstörungsfreien Verfahrens sowie Erfassung der Ressourcenallokation für die Reproduktion (Project Head Mosandl, Reinhard )
• B04 - Dynamik des Konkurrenzverhaltens von Buche und Fichte im Kronen- und Wurzelraum als Reaktion auf Störungen durch Ozon und Lückenbildung in einem Mischbestand (Project Heads Häberle, Karl-Heinz ;  Matyssek, Rainer )
• B05 - Space-related cost/benefit analyses as an integrative concept for plant competitiveness (Project Heads Häberle, Karl-Heinz ;  Matyssek, Rainer )
• B06 - Effects of stress, competition and ontogeny on respiration - biosynthetic efficiency, maintenance costs and functional properties of substrate pools (Project Head Schnyder, Johannes )
• B07 - Changes in space occupation and space exploitation by mycorrhizae and their extramatrical mycelia under stress conditions and possible effects on the nutrient supply to the plants (Project Head Agerer, Reinhard )
• B8 - Einfluß von variablen Umweltbedingungen auf das Konkurrenzverhalten arbuskulärer Mykorrhizapilze (Project Head Hock, Bertold )
• B09 - Effects of abiotic and biotic stress on rhizodeposition an enzyme activities in the mycorrhizosphere of herbaceous and woody plants (Project Heads Munch, Jean Charles ;  Schloter, Michael )
• B10 - Evaluation of the distribution and utilisation of nutrients in organs, plants and stands of spruce and beech as well as of selected herbaceous species (Project Head Göttlein, Axel )
• B11 - Wachstum, Ressourcenerwerb (C, N, P, H2-O), -allokation und -verteilung in Mais, Weidelgras und Apfel unter dem Einfluss von Mykorrhizierung, Stress und Störung (Project Heads Hu, Yuncai ;  Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth ;  Schmidhalter, Urs ;  Schnyder, Johannes )
• B12 - Das Lysimeterexperiment: Einfluss von Buchen unter Ozon- und Pathogenstress auf mikrobielle Funktionen in der Rhizosphäre (Project Heads Munch, Jean Charles ;  Schloter, Michael )
• C01 - Central Administration (Project Head Matyssek, Rainer )
• C02 - Modelling cost-benefit relations of carbon and nitrogen allocation in the plant-rhizosphere system (Project Head Priesack, Eckart )
• C03 - Simulation of plant stands under variable environment and stress conditions (Project Head Pretzsch, Hans )
• C4 - Quantifizierung von Pilzen und Pilzbefall mit Hilfe der Poymerasekettenreaktion (PCR) (Project Head Oßwald, Ph.D., Wolfgang )
• C07 - Mathematical Methods for Analysis and Synthesis of Complex Data from Different Experiments (Project Heads Graf zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, Wolfgang ;  Filbir, Frank-Dieter ;  Lasser, Rupert )

• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt
• Participating University: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Rainer Matyssek