Prof. Caroline Gutjahr
Director of Department 1: Root Biology and Symbiosis and Research Group Leader "Mycorrhiza and Root Biology", Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) in Potsdam-Golm
Prof. Caroline Gutjahr is the Director of Department 1: Root Biology and Symbiosis and Research Group Leader: "Mycorrhiza and Root Biology" at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and the 2018 SEB Presidents Medallist for Plant Biology. She investigates the developmental biology and function of arbuscular mycorrhiza, a symbiosis between plants and beneficial soil fungi, which enhances plant nutrition with mineral nutrients. Using a combination of molecular biology, genetics, cell biology and biochemistry, she aims to understand plant molecular mechanisms, which regulate and execute remodelling of plant cells that allow arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi to colonize these cells. Furthermore, she is fascinated by the question of how molecular mechanisms interconnect plant and symbiosis development and how this may allow plants to orchestrate arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis with their physiological needs under changing environmental conditions. She cares about agricultural applications and has started using natural variation genetics to investigate the genetic basis of symbiosis-mediated increases in plant performance in the greenhouse and in the field.
After studying Biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, Caroline received her first training in arbuscular mycorrhiza research in the laboratory of Paola Bonfante at the University of Turin, Italy, where she studied the effect of fungal signaling molecules on root starch metabolism. For her PhD and a short Postdoc, she joined the lab of Uta Paszkowski at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and investigated arbuscular mycorrhiza development in rice. She then moved to the University of Munich (LMU), Germany to establish her own group supported by the Emmy Noether program of the DFG and hosted by the chair of Martin Parniske. Caroline received an ERC starting grant and was appointed as a Tenure Track Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2017 and received tenure in 2021. She recently joined the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm.
