Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schurr at High-Throughput Phenotyping for Crop Physiology and Plant Breeding Workshop, ABRII

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schurr at High-Throughput Phenotyping for Crop Physiology and Plant Breeding Workshop, ABRII

Prof. Ulrich Schurr is Director at the Institute for Bio- and Geo Sciences – IBG-2: Plant Sciences at Forschungszentrum Jülich. He is coordinating several large national and international projects – like the Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), the European (EPPN) and the German (DPPN) and the International (IPPN) Plant Phenotyping Network. Prof. Schurr is a member of the Executive Board of the European Technology Platform Plants for the Future and was Vice-President of EPSO (European Plant Science Organization) for 6 years.

Professionally, Dr. Schurr focuses on the dynamics of growth and transport in plants and their influence by varying environmental conditions. Insights into this are the basis of novel applications of plants in the vision of a sustainable bio-economy. In order to understand and translate these processes into practical applications, it is essential to capture quantitative information on key processes of plant systems in their interaction with dynamic environmental factors and to elucidate the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms. Especially suitable for this purpose are novel methods and innovative experimental approaches, which are also a focus in his own work.

Research focus

  • Physiological concepts of plant environment interaction
  • Quantitative phenotypes of geometries and mapping of function and ecophysiology of lifeforms
  • Screening of plants for altered physiological and anatomical phenotypes the cutting edge high-throughput phenotyping facilities for growth and photosynthesis

The research tasks of the IBG-2: Plant Sciences focusing on investigations of dynamic processes in plants and the development of new methodological approaches are organisationally divided into 5 subject areas, which are closely linked:

  • Jülich Plant Phenotyping Center (JPPC)
  • Growth and metabolism
  • transport
  • ecosystems
  • Enabling Technologies

 

Prof. Schurr has many publications and book chapters in plant phenotyping and plant sciences.

The ten most important publications

  1. van Dusschoten D, Metzner R, Kochs J, Postma JA, Pflugfelder D, Bühler J, Schurr U, Jahnke S (2016) Quantitative 3D Analysis of Plant Roots Growing in Soil Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Plant Physiol 170(3):1176-1188.
  2. Rascher U, Alonso L, Burkart A, Cilia C, Cogliati S, Colombo R, Damm A, Drusch M, Guanter L, Hanus J, Hyvärinen T, Julitta T, Jussila J, Kataja K, Kokkalis P, Kraft S, Kraska T, Matveeva M, Moreno J, Muller O, Panigada C, Pikl M, Pinto F, Prey L, Pude R, Rossini M, Schickling A, Schurr U, Schüttemeyer D, Verrelst J, Zemek F (2015) Sun-induced fluorescence – a new probe of photosynthesis: First maps from the imaging spectrometer HyPlant. Global Change Biology 21(12):4673-4684.
  3. Metzner R, Eggert A, van Dusschoten D, Pflugfelder D, Gerth S, Schurr U, Uhlmann N, Jahnke S (2015) Direct comparison of MRI and X-ray CT technologies for 3D imaging of root systems in soil: potential and challenges for root trait quantification. Plant Methods 11:17.
  4. Bühler J, Rishmawi L, Pflugfelder D, Huber G, Scharr H, Hülskamp M, Koornneef M, Schurr U, Jahnke S (2015) phenoVein-A Tool for Leaf Vein Segmentation and Analysis. Plant Physiol 169(4):2359-2370.
  5. Postma JA, Schurr U, Fiorani F (2014) Dynamic root growth and architecture responses to limiting nutrient availability: linking physiological models and experimentation. Biotechnol Adv 32(1):53-65.
  6. McCouch S, Baute GJ, Bradeen J, Bramel P, Bretting PK, Buckler E, Burke JM, Charest D, Cloutier S, Cole G, Dempewolf H, Dingkuhn M, Feuillet C, Gepts P, Grattapaglia D, Guarino L, Jackson S, Knapp S, Langridge P, Lawton-Rauh A, Lijua Q, Lusty C, Michael T, Myles S, Naito K, Nelson RL, Pontarollo R, Richards CM, Rieseberg L, Ross-Ibarra J, Rounsley S, Hamilton RS, Schurr U, Stein N, Tomooka N, van der Knaap E, van Tassel D, Toll J, Valls J, Varshney RK, Ward J, Waugh R, Wenzl P, Zamir D (2013) Agriculture: Feeding the future. Nature 499(7456):23-24.
  7. Fiorani F, Schurr U (2013) Future scenarios for plant phenotyping. Annual review of plant biology 64:267-291.
  8. Fiorani F, Rascher U, Jahnke S, Schurr U (2012) Imaging plants dynamics in heterogenic environments. Current opinion in biotechnology 23(2):227-235.
  9. De Smet I, White PJ, Bengough AG, Dupuy L, Parizot B, Casimiro I, Heidstra R, Laskowski M, Lepetit M, Hochholdinger F, Draye X, Zhang H, Broadley MR, Péret B, Hammond JP, Fukaki H, Mooney S, Lynch JP, Nacry P, Schurr U, Laplaze L, Benfey P, Beeckman T, Bennett M (2012) Analyzing lateral root development: how to move forward. The Plant cell 24(1):15-20.
  10. Rascher U, Blossfeld S, Fiorani F, Jahnke S, Jansen M, Kuhn AJ, Matsubara S, Märtin LLA, Merchant A, Metzner R, Müller-Linow M, Nagel KA, Pieruschka R, Pinto F, Schreiber CM, Temperton VM, Thorpe MR, van Dusschoten D, van Volkenburgh E, Windt CW, Schurr U (2011) Non-invasive approaches for phenotyping of enhanced performance traits in bean. Functional Plant Biology 38(12):968-983.

Prof. Schurr also teaches as a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

http://www.fz-juelich.de/ibg/ibg-2/EN/Staff/Alternative_Biomass/Schurr_Ulrich/Schurr.html

Prof. Schurr will talk about “Non-Invasive technology – the key to next generation phenotyping” at this workshop.

Source: ABRII