Educational background and work experience:Master of Science in International Horticulture, Major in Plant Biotechnology, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany (2004-2006). Subject of thesis: “Testing the Transcriptional Regulation of Arabidopsis thaliana Phospholipase A Gene Family Using Natural and Synthetic Promoters”. Major Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Günther Scherer. BSc. in Plant Science, Hawassa University , Ethiopia (1998-2002). Graduate Assistant in Hawassa University (2002-2004). Current PhD project:Functional characterization of maize terpenes. Researchers in our group have already shown that sesquiterpenes produced by the maize (Zea mays) terpene synthase enzymes are involved in indirect defense against herbivore enemies aboveground (Schnee, et al., 2006) and belowground (Rasmann et al., 2005). My project mainly focuses to answer the following two questions: 1. To investigate whether these terpenes are also involved in herbivore toxicity or deterrence as direct defensive compounds. 2. To elucidate whether terpenes are also involved in protecting plants from abiotic stresses like ozone and check whether they are involved in the signaling process of these stresses in plant cell. Systems I am using: Different mutant maize and Arabidopsis plants overexpressing different maize terpene synthase genes, the generalist herbivore, Spodoptera littoralis, and Ozone generator & analyzer. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Joerg Degenhardt and Prof. Dr. Jonathan Gershenzon. |