EXC 2048: CEPLAS - Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences

植物通过将太阳能转化为化学能，使地球上的生命得以存在。从新石器时代革命开始，植物的驯化为人类人口增长提供了基础，随后是高度发达的文明的演变。然而，人口增长带来的日益增长的粮食需求和人为气候变化的影响对可持续粮食生产和生态系统维护构成了巨大挑战。CEPLAS植物科学精英集群通过世界级的基础研究，对影响产量和适应有限资源的复杂植物性状进行农艺相关性研究，以应对这些重大挑战。因此，这些知识对于设计和培育以可预测的方式应对未来挑战的植物(智能植物)至关重要。CEPLAS分为4个相辅相成的研究领域。RA1的目的是了解新陈代谢、生活史和发育是如何结合在一起的，以优化植物的表现，以便在植物生命周期的每个阶段建立发育过程和它们的生理相关性之间的预测联系。RA2阐述了微生物区系对植物表现和对不同土壤的适应的贡献。RA3利用合成生物学在正交系统中重建植物途径，以获得对途径结构的定量理解，并解释潜在遗传网络中自然发生的变异的定量效应。因此，它将通过在异源系统中重建来克服高度互连的信号和代谢网络的复杂性，从而加速科学进步。最后，RA 4采取了一种理论方法，旨在开发计算和数学框架，以便对其他研究领域产生的丰富实验数据进行解释和整合。作为收集、管理和整合异质数据的枢纽，RA4将推动新颖实验的合理设计。CEPLAS将科隆大学和杜塞尔多夫大学、马克斯·普朗克植物育种研究所和Forschungszentrum Jülich的资源整合为一个国际领先的植物科学中心，吸引世界一流的教师和初级研究人员。除了其研究使命，我们的目标是使科隆/杜塞尔多夫地区成为有才华的年轻研究人员发展事业的首选地点。为了支持这一目标，CEPLAS为本科生和研究生研究人员以及博士后科学家提供了植物与微生物生物学、系统与合成生物学以及理论生物学的新形式的培训。CEPLAS接触公众以及关注可持续粮食安全的慈善家和组织，并打算被视为向决策者提供咨询和基于证据的建议的最佳合作伙伴。

Plants enable life on Earth through the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy. Beginning with the Neolithic Revolution, the domestication of plants provided the basis for human population growth and, subsequently, the evolution of highly developed civilizations. However, the growing food demands imposed by an increasing population and the effects of anthropogenic climate change pose huge challenges for sustainable food production and ecosystem maintenance. The Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences CEPLAS addresses these grand challenges through world-class fundamental research on complex plant traits of agronomic relevance that impact on yield and adaptation to limited resources. Hence this knowledge is essential for designing and breeding plants that react in a predictable way to future challenges (SMART plants). CEPLAS is organized into 4 complementary research areas. RA1 aims to understand how metabolism, life history, and development are integrated to optimize plant performance in order to establish predictive links between developmental processes and their physiological relevance at each stage of the plant’s life cycle. RA2 addresses the contribution of microbiota to plant performance and adaptation to different soils. RA3 employs synthetic biology to reconstruct plant pathways in orthogonal systems to obtain a quantitative understanding of pathway architectures and to explain quantitative effects of naturally occurring variation in the underlying genetic networks. It will thereby accelerate scientific progress by overcoming the complexity of highly interconnected signaling and metabolic networks through reconstruction in heterologous systems. Finally, RA 4 takes a theoretical approach aiming at the development of computational and mathematical frameworks that will allow interpretation and integration of the wealth of experimental data generated by the other research areas. As a hub for collecting, curating, and integrating heterogeneous data, RA4 will drive the rational design of novel experiments.CEPLAS integrates the resources of the Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, and the Forschungszentrum Jülich into an internationally leading plant science center that attracts world-class faculty and junior researchers.Beyond its research mission, we aim for the Cologne/Düsseldorf area to become the location of choice for talented young researchers wishing to develop their careers. To support this aim, CEPLAS provides novel forms of training for undergraduate and graduate researchers and postdoctoral scientists at the interface of plant and microbial biology, systems and synthetic biology, and theoretical biology. CEPLAS reaches out to the public as well as philanthropists and organizations focusing on sustainable food security, and intends to be perceived as the best partner to contact for consultation and evidence-based recommendations to decision makers.