Plant Molecular Biology and Forest Biotechnology Research Unit

University of Helsinki

Director: Professor Tapio Palva
tel. +358 9 7085 9600
fax  +358 9 7085 9076
tapio.palva(at)helsinki.fi

Centre of Excellence Homepage

The growth of plants, their distribution, productivity and product quality are all directly dependent on the growth environment and on the stress factors occurring within that environment (e.g. frost, drought, pollution). Basing their work on the models of Arabidopsis thaliana and birch, researchers at the Unit are aiming to find out how plants adapt to stress situations caused by the environment, how they identify internal and external stimuli, how they convey this information to the nucleus and activate the response genes and how these genes produce the relevant physiological response to increase the plant's tolerance of stress. Research focuses on exploring signal routes and their interaction as well as on trying to gain a deeper understanding of  how response genes function in the plant's defensive responses against disease-causing microorganisms. This is important to ongoing work aimed at breeding transgenic plants that are more resistant, that grow faster and that produce better quality wood.

The Unit consists of eight groups. In addition to the group leaders who are professors or docents, there are eight post doctoral researchers, 25 post-graduate students and five assisting researchers.