Paul Schulze-Lefert is a geneticist and biochemist, interested in the communication between plants and microbes. He and his group made distinctive contributions to the understanding of how plants detect pathogens, activate and deploy innate immune responses to terminate pathogen proliferation. More recently, his work aims at a deeper understanding of the ecology of plant–microbe interactions.
Paul’s initial work focused on the study of disease resistance to fungal pathogens in cereal plants. He pioneered the isolation of plant genes in complex cereal genomes and used genetic analysis to identify pathways for extracellular immune responses that are conserved in flowering plants. He and his team developed reductionist approaches to the study of the plant microbiota. This revealed how the microbiota can establish itself at the interface with the plant immune system. Microbiota reconstitution experiments showed how soil-derived microbes colonize plant roots to form robust microbial communities that provide beneficial services to the plant host, including plant mineral nutrition.
Paul Schulze Lefert is currently Director of the Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany.
Professional position
- Director, Max Planck Institute For Plant Breeding Research, Max Planck Society
Subject groups
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Molecules of Life
Biochemistry and molecular biology, Biophysics and structural biology, Cell biology (incl molecular cell biology), Molecular microbiology
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Cell Biology
Cellular pathology, Developmental biology, Genetics (excluding population genetics)
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Patterns in Populations
Evolution, Mycology, Plant sciences / botany
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Other
Science education at secondary level
