Meike Burow

Metabolic and Regulatory Networks 

Plant metabolism relies on interconnected regulatory feedback loops and balanced investments of resources into growth and defense. Different taxa, species and chemotypes within a species have evolved different biosynthetic pathways leading to structurally highly diverse specialized metabolites. These pathways require different precursors as metabolic input, and typically specific cell types and microenvironments for production and storage of the compounds. Yet, as the functions of specialized metabolites generally depend on their accumulation in the right tissue at the right time, their biosynthetic pathways must share tight coordination with primary metabolism and development as a common feature.

To ultimately understand how plants integrate internal and external signals to orchestrate metabolic and developmental processes, we study transcriptional regulation (transcription factors, DNA methylation, chromatin modification), post-transcriptional regulation (regulatory RNAs, RNA stability), and post-translational regulation (protein modification, protein stability, protein-protein interactions, metabolite sensing) and how all these regulatory levels are coordinated on the molecular level.

Professor Meike Burow is co-founder and board member of DynaMo Center and heads the research group for Metabolic and Regulatory Networks as well as the Section for Molecular Plant Biology.

RESEARCH TOPICS

Current Group members