Environmental change is threatening ecosystems and thereby human societies, and thus, understanding how organisms adapt to environmental stresses is a pressing need.
In our group, we aim to understand the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to resist and adapt to biotic and abiotic stresses. Using different dandelion species, we study the role of plant specialized metabolites in mediating plant-herbivore-microbe interactions, and the herbivore’s role in activating these compounds. In the clonal duckweeds, we assess whether plants may acquire stress resistance also in the absence of genetic change, either through alterations in the plant microbial community or epigenetic changes. The outcome of these studies will not only improve our conceptual understanding for plant adaptation in a changing environment, but may also contribute to industrial applications of these organisms.