Ecology and Plant Sciences

1. Temporal, spatial and vertical dynamics in marine environments
2. Ecology, biology, and physiology of corals
3. Palaeoecology and historical ecology for reconstructing ancient marine environments
4. Shallow, mesophotic, rariphotic and deep-sea marine environments
5. Fluorescent proteins in marine organisms
6. Technologies for advanced marine monitoring and research

1. Temporal, spatial and vertical dynamics in marine environments
2. Ecology, biology, and physiology of corals
3. Palaeoecology and historical ecology for reconstructing ancient marine environments
4. Shallow, mesophotic, rariphotic and deep-sea marine environments
5. Fluorescent proteins in marine organisms
6. Technologies for advanced marine monitoring and research

The group studies the ecology and biogeochemistry of marine phytoplankton.

The research combines laboratory work with cultures and field studies of natural populations, incorporating molecular, biochemical, physiological, and geochemical approaches.

Research topics include:

• Dynamics of phytoplankton blooms in the ocean

• Host–virus interactions in diatoms

• Ecology of Marnaviridae viruses

• Biogeochemistry of infected cells

1. Biological Clocks in Marine Organisms
2. Biology and Molecular Ecology of Cnidarians
3. Biology, symbiosis, Physiology and Molecular Ecology in Coral Reefs.
4. Nanotoxicology in Marine Environments

1. Role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in abiotic stress sensing and signaling
2. Rapid systemic response of plants to high temperature and high light intensity
3. Identification of heat stress tolerance mechanisms in pollen
4. Develop flow cytometry-based methods for pollen biology study

1. Molecular regulation of early fruit development (fruit set)
2. Molecular recognition of viral and fungal pathogens by plants
3. Identifying genes involved in fruit set and resistance to pathogens by CRISPR-CAS9

1. Metabolite discovery using state-of-the-art HPLC and high-resolution LC-MS platforms coupled with advanced computational pipelines
2. Identifying bioactive metabolites formed at the diet–gut microbiota–host interface, with a focus on metabolites found in plant-based foods (phytochemicals)
3. Understanding how diet and the microbiome shape liver function
4. Revealing mechanisms by which diet–microbiome interactions modulate cancer development and therapeutic response

1. Regulation of plant gene expression at the level of mRNA stability in the nonsense mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway.
2. Enhancement of plant gene expression by introns at the levels of mRNA content and translational efficiency.
3. Regulation of plant gene expression by upstream open reading frames (uORFs).
4. Transport of magnesium and heavy metals into the plant vacuole.

1. Biofilms of cyanobacteria
2. Regulated proteolysis of light pigment complexes
3. Tailoring cyanobacteria for biofuel

1. Breeding for resistance against powdery mildew in cucumbers.
2. Cultivating cucumbers for leaf disease resistance.
3. Gene transfer from wild basil to cultivated basil for resistance against powdery mildew, Fusarium, and leaf blight.
4. The relationship between aroma and tolerance to tobacco aphid in basil.
5. Characterization of cannabinoids in cannabis strains under different cultivation conditions.
6. Chemical mutagenesis of medical cannabis.
7. Genetic transformation of cannabis.
8. Chemical control of powdery mildew.
9. Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of wart disease in potatoes.
10. Prevention of mold in cannabis inflorescences.

1. Terrestrial ecosystem, dynamics and diversity of soil biota of arid, semiarid and agroecosystems.
2. Belowground processes in with emphasis on relationship of soil invertebrates and detrital food web structure to primary production monitoring rangeland conditions (health)
3. Assessing success of rehabilitation efforts on disturbed rangelands, such as improvement of primary production, reverse desertification processes and rehabilitation of coal strip mines
4. Biological management of soil ecosystems for sustainable agriculture, decomposition processes, climate change effect on biotic component of soil biota. In the belowground processes the emphasis on soil microbial community (bacteria, fungi), free-living nematodes, protozoa, microarthropods and plant organism relationships.