Plants have a sessile lifestyle. To ensure survival, they develop a potential to respond to environmental cues to set up an adaptive growth and development. This adaptation involves transcriptional reprogramming of the genome through chromatin-based mechanisms relying on the dynamic interplay of transcription factors (TFs), post-translational modif...
Various types of dietary fatty acids have different effects on human health. The aim of this thesis was to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of dietary fatty acids. To do this, we examined changes in whole genome gene expression profiles upon both acute as well as longer term dietary fatty acid interventi...
In dairy cattle the nutrient requirements change rapidly around calving. During the dry period nutrients are required for maintenance, recovery from the previous lactation, and fetal growth. After calving, milk production commences and the energy requirements can increase by a factor 3 to ~184 MJ net energy for lactation during the first weeks of l...
The application of microbial and plant photosynthesis for biobased production on the one hand has a huge potential but on the other hand photosynthesis has serious limitations regarding its efficiency. Hence, studying both fundamental features of photosynthetic processes and engineering of photosystems is of paramount interest, exploring the engine...
Background: Nutrition research is facing several challenges with respect to finding diet related health effects. The effects of nutrition on health are subtle, show high interindividual variations in response, and can take long before they become visual. Recently, the definition of health has been redefined as an organism’s ability to adapt to chal...
Powdery mildew (PM) is a major fungal disease that threatens thousands of plant species. PM is caused by Podosphaera leucotricha in apple and Erysiphe necator in grapevine. Powdery mildew is controlled by frequent applications of fungicides, having negative effects on the environment, and leading to additional costs for growers. To reduce the amoun...
Trait variation within species is shaped by the genotype and the environment an individual is exposed to. Genomic information is inherited from the parents and forms the basis of the phenotype of an organism. The genetic variation between parents becomes differently distributed between their offspring, leading to trait variation in the offspring. E...
Plants growing in natural environments are exposed to a broad range of biotic (pathogen attack, insect herbivory, etc.) and abiotic factors (drought, extreme temperatures, UV radiation, salinity, etc.) that are known to cause stress symptoms in many species (Pareek et al., 2010; Robert-Seilaniantz et al., 2010). Biotic and abiotic stress-inducing d...
