Former people

Dawn worked on two projects: the CAGE database for genomic expression in Arabidopsis and the gene expression changes resulting from oviposition by Pieris butterflies on Arabidopsis.

Natacha studied the signaling pathways involved in the plant response to insect herbivory. Using available Arabidopsis mutants lacking important defense signals, she studied gene expression changes with microarrays and tried to correlate transcript profiles with insect performance in order to assess the effect of plant defenses on insect growth.

Floriane was interested in plant-insects co-evolution. She showed that insects are able to weaken plants defenses in the case of an attack. Indeed application of oral secretions to wounded leaves suppressed the induction of two defense-related genes.

Wouter tested the role of G-proteins in defense against herbivores. 

Fred worked on the detection of neighbors and on competition in Arabidopsis plants, as part of an interdisciplinary research project with Laurent Keller (funded by the Research Committee of the FBM). He found that competitive ability and not kinship is the main factor controlling growth in plant-plant interactions.

Friederike discovered that egg deposition on Arabidopsis leaves inhibits defenses against caterpillars through antagonism between SA and the JA pathways. 

Fabian studied the involvement of Arabidopsis transcription factors in defense against herbivory. He revealed a crucial role for MYC2, MYC3, and MYC4 as master regulators of defense gene expression in the JA pathway.