IBMP Seminar by Ralph BOCK

Ralph BOCK Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm, Germany, and Professor at the University Potsdam

Title of seminar  Genes gone wild: Experimental evolution meets synthetic biology

Abstract
In my talk, I will describe experimental approaches to study genome evolution in real time. I will discuss three fundamental processes in eukaryotic genome evolution and show how they can be reconstructed in laboratory experiments: (i) the transfer of organellar (plastid and mitochondrial) genes to the nuclear genome, (ii) the conversion of transferred organellar genes into functional nuclear genes, and (iii) the movement of genetic material between plants by horizontal gene and genome transfer. Finally, I will show how horizontal genome transfer can be employed as a versatile tool in plant biotechnology and synthetic biology.