Plants are primary producers and the basis of human life on earth. Our general research focus is on development, evolution and ecology of plants thereby integrating plant anatomy and cell biology, genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, signalling and metabolic modeling, systems theory and ecosystems research. An applied focus is on large whole genome germplasm collections of crop species, e.g. legumes, potato, tomato, wheat, pearl millet, barley and grapevine. We investigate gene functions in the environmental and agroecological context, with a focus on plant stress physiology, plant-microbe interaction and adaptation in the era of a global climate crisis.