Primary fields of research

My main research area is within plant-microbe interactions with focus on pathogen effector genomics and biology and we are mostly using barley and the barley powdery mildew fungus, Blumeria hordei, as pathosystem but we also employ Arabidopsis and its compatible powdery mildew fungi and I have also worked on the stripe rust pathogen, Puccinia striiformis.

We are studying defence signalling using various Arabidopsis mutants and have identified new signalling components using the lesion mimic mutant lacking the two syntaxins pen1 and syp122.

I have been involved in characterization of the Danish apple collection using SNP-markers and performed genome wide association studies based on this population for traits related to fruit volatiles, sugars and harvest date and characterization of certain candidate genes is ongoing.

During the years I have been involved in research on wild Crocus-species and lately also indoor cultivation of Crocus sativus under various light spectra conditions.

Teaching

Teaching in courses:

Genetics (course responsible),  Plantevidenskab (course responsible), Molecular Genetics, From Genomics to Plant Breeding, Fruit and Berry Crop Physiology and Quality, and Advanced Plant Ecophysiology.

Supervision:

I have supervised 13 PhD-students and 14 master students as main or co-supervisor. I have also supervised many short- and long term visitors in the lab.