Research

Students working in the Van Eck Lab gain experience in working with plants in the lab and growth chambers, as well as training in plant molecular biology. We study the genomics of barley and its wild relative, Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum, trying to identify novel genes that contribute to aphid resistance. We use Augsburg University's only electropenetography instrument to study the electrophysiology of aphids while feeding on these crop wild relatives, and use quantitative PCR and histochemical approaches to characterize plant defense responses. We are very interested in how the plant's own biochemical responses contribute to resistance against insect pests, and how the microbiome of facultative bacteria may facilitate these interactions.