Plants and their pollinators form complex interaction networks. Within these networks, species differ widely in the number of species they interact with.

Mycoheterotrophy is a particular mode of life in which plants obtain carbohydrates from their associated fungal partners, instead of by using photosynthesis.

The plant hormone auxin plays a central role in the growth and development of plants. Auxin acts in a concentration dependent manner and polar cell-to-cell transport of this hormone determines its distribution in the tissues of plants. This polar auxin transport is mediated by several families of auxin…

Leiden University and the Municipality of Leiden worked together on the development of the Schilperoort Park. This new public space is situated in the north-eastern part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. The park ambience is extended into the adjacent residential area, where former medical laboratories…

Plant architecture has distinct forms in different plant species, but also within a species the finalarchitecture of a plant is determined by its gradual development and changes therein induced by environmental conditions during the plant’s life cycle.

Why do plants produces always produced so many slightly differing metabolites within a particular chemical class?

How presence, abundance and enzymatic activities of AM and EM fungi differently affect soil carbon sequestration processes?

Collaborators and advisors of the Plant BioDynamics Laboratory

Paleobotanist Menno Booi discovered that 250 previously described fossil tree species are objectively not distinguishable; they belong to only one single species.

What are the global relationships between environmental conditions and abundance of distinct types of mycorrhizal fungi in soil and plant roots?

What is the cost of visual complexity? This dissertation sets out to determine the effect of the complexity of word formation on the legibility of Arabic and the role that vocalization plays in reading.

PhD at Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens - France

Robin Heinen is our Institute of Biology Leiden's nominee for the C.J. Kok Jury Award 2019.

This project investigates the causes of the major archaeological change in the period of 40.000-20.000 BC in South Africa.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a gram-negative plant pathogen belonging to the family Rhizobiaceae, is the causative agent of crown gall disease, which can affect many plant species including agronomically important ones.

Plants, are sessile organisms, have developed strategies to adapt to changes in their environment, in part by altering their growth and development.

On this page the programme and sessions can be found. The programme will be updated regularly.

Plants do much better in some soils than in others, thanks to a bacterial community that helps fight soil plant pathogens. Bacteria settle on plant roots and form the first line of defence. Some of them move into plant roots, and Víctor Carrión Bravo discovered how they contribute to additional defence…

Appropriate animal models for intradermal vaccine delivery are scarce. Given the high similarity of their skin anatomy to that of humans, minipigs may be a suitable model for dermal vaccine delivery.

Promotor: P.J.J. Hooykaas, Co-Promotor: E.J. van der Zaal

Is translocation of nucleases possible via Agrobacterium T4SS and is it efficient enough for mutagenesis?

The general aim of the project is a description and analysis of the Leiden anatomical collections from a humanities perspective. The project investigates how historical and cultural practices and concerns have shaped anatomical preparations and how exhibitions of the anatomical body have informed cultural…

Solar energy harnessed by plants and algae has great potential to be converted into biofuels for future generations.

Light-Harvesting Complex II (LHCII) is responsible for light absorption and excitation energy transfer in plants and photosynthetic algae, while in high light it undergoes conformational changes by which it quenches excitations to prevent photodamage.

Great efforts are made to describe carbon cycling in view of climate change and CO2 emission. Thanks to plants and fungi working together belowground - a combination known as mycorrhiza - large quantities of carbon are stored in soils. But until now, this process has been neglected in these calculations.…

To gain more insight into the evolutionary development of orchid flowers and fruits, the orchid species Erycina pusilla was studied. The evolutionary origin of the median petaloid sepal, the callus on the labellum, and the stelidia was studied.

The Metabolomics Facility of the University of Leiden has brought together two research groups from the Faculty of Science that are well-known for their expertise in two different fields: the Biomedical Metabolomics Facility Leiden, experts in clinical metabolomics and the Natural Products Laboratory,…

Increasing the efficiency of gene targeting (GT) as a genome editing tool in plants has been an important goal in plant biotechnology.

Can metabolomic profiling be used to predict resistance against insect herbivores in plants?

Associate professor at the Natural Products Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University - the Netherlands

The treasure houses of Leiden's University Library and Naturalis house wonderful historical collections with dried plants and botanical drawings. Tinde van Andel, extraordinary professor of History of botany and gardens, studies these collections.

Can the (industrial) herbal extraction process be mathematically described and can this model be used to optimize the extraction in terms of quality and economical parameters?

The RNA guided endonuclease based on the CRISPR/Cas system of Streptococcus pyogenus is a potent new tool for genome engineering in plants.

The Basics and Applications to Plant Sciences HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

PBDL favors multidisciplinary research. Depending on the problems under investigation, PBDL establishes collaborations between experts from for example molecular genetics, molecular and electro cell physiology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, analytical mathematics, mathematical statistics and computational…

PhD at Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department, University of Malaga - Spain

Are you interested in the neurocognitive and biological roots of learning, behaviour and emotions in children? If so, the programme in Applied Neuroscience in Human Development might be the specialisation you are looking for.

Promotor: Prof.dr. R. Verpoorte, , Co-Promotor: Young Hae Choi

And its application in deciphering hominin diets in palaeolithic eurasia

This project, executed by Marieke Hendriksen MA MRes, aims at an analysis of how the early modern anatomical collections of Leiden University were rooted in ideals of perfection in different fields of knowledge and expertise.

How the global distribution of vegetation stands dominated by arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal plants relate to principle aspects of belowground carbon accumulation processes?

The girls and boys from the Schilderswijk in The Hague were very keen to learn. On 20 May, 25 pupils from the Saturday school, the Schilderswijk University, came to Leiden University College in The Hague.

Within the Chinese medicine, more than 80% of the constituents of the preparations are derived from plants. Like any other organism, plants are constantly interacting with their changing and often harsh environment during the various phases of their life cycle.

Supervisor: P.J.J. Hooykaas

A selection of recent publications from the Plant BioDynamics Laboratory.

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

Sip2020 is sponsored by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences (EPS).

Promotor: Prof.dr. P.G.L. Klinkhamer, Co-Promotor: T.J. de Jong