Becker Team

Prof. Dr. Claude Becker

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+49 89 2180 74740

claude.becker@biologie.uni-muenchen.de

E03.057

Research

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The aim of our research is to understand some of the fundamental mechanistic processes that define organismic interactions in agricultural, horticultural, and ecological contexts. Our objective is to ultimately make these processes accessible for improved, effective, and sustainable practical solutions in crop protection and agricultural production. In my research group, we combine genomics and bioinformatics with molecular biology and genetics to investigate how plants shape their micro- and macro-biotic environment via the production and release of specialized metabolites, and how the production of these compounds is regulated both endogenously and by external factors. To this end, we work on crop as well as model plat systems.

Publications

1. Janse van Rensburg, H.J. Schandry, N., Waelchli, J., Stengele, K., Cadot, S., Jandrasits, K., Becker, C.*, Schlaeppi, K.* (2025) A TNL receptor mediates microbiome feedbacks in Arabidopsis. bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2025.02.25.640125
2. Priego-Cubero, S., Knoch, E., Wang, Z., Alseekh, S., Braun, K.H., Chapman, P., Fernie, A.R., Liu, C., Becker, C. (2025) Sub-functionalization and epigenetic regulation of a biosynthetic gene cluster in Solanaceae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 122: e2420164122. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2420164122
3. Priego-Cubero, S., Toyomasu, T., Hasegawa, Y., Liu, Y., Nojiri, H., Okada, K., Becker, C. (2025). Evolution and diversification of the momilactone biosynthetic gene cluster in the genus Oryza. New Phytol, 245: 2681-2697. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20416
4. Wibowo, A.*, Becker, C.*, Durr, J., Price, J., Spaepen, S., Hilton, S., Putra, H., Papareddy, R., Saintain, Q., Harvey, S., Bending, G.D., Schulze-Lefert, P., Weigel, D., Gutierrez-Marcos, J. (2018) Partial maintenance of organ-specific epigenetic marks during plant asexual reproduction leads to heritable phenotypic variation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115: E9145-9152. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1805371115
5. Venturelli, S., Belz, R.G., Kamper, A., Berger, A., von Horn, K., Wegner, A., Bocker, A., Zabulon, G., Langenecker, T., Kohlbacher, O., Barneche, F., Weigel, D., Lauer, U.M., Bitzer, M., and Becker, C. (2015). Plants release precursors of histone deacetylase inhibitors to suppress growth of competitors. Plant Cell 27: 3175-3189. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.15.00585
6. Becker, C.*, Hagmann, J.*, Muller, J., Koenig, D., Stegle, O., Borgwardt, K., and Weigel, D. (2011). Spontaneous epigenetic variation in the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome. Nature 480: 245-249. DOI: 10.1038/nature10555

For a complete publication list, please click here.