1997: Dr. rer. nat. (PhD) University of Osnabrück (Prof. Dr. E. Neuhaus)
1997 - 2000: Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Osnabrück (BMELF funded project on lipid metabolism in rapeseed)
since 2000: Research Associate at the University of Kaiserslautern (Plant Physiology)

MAJOR RESEARCH INTEREST:

Molecular analysis of plant nucleotide metabolism. Function and regulation of pathway branches during development, growth and under acclimation to abiotic stresses.

Nucleotides are building blocks of DNA and RNA, they are involved in the storage and transmission of genetic information and function as energy transmitters for many metabolic pathways. Further, they act as cofactors for the synthesis of sugars, polysaccharides, glycoproteins, and phospholipids. This view appears very static in a way that once all components have been synthesized the job is done. More recent results however clearly indicate that this is not the case. Nucleotide metabolism needs to dynamically adjust to cellular requirements when growth rates are high or abiotic factors challenge plants, like cold temperature for example.

We are interested in the different pathway branches: de novo synthesis, the salvage pathway and related transport processes. Furthermore, vacuolar RNA metabolism is studied.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• Bellin L, Del Caño-Ochoa F, Velázquez-Campoy A, Möhlmann T*, Ramón-Maiques S* (2021) Mechanisms of feedback inhibition and sequential firing of active sites in plant aspartate transcarbamoylase. Nat. Commun. 12, 947 (2021). doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21165-9 (*shared corresponding authorship)
  Highlighted by Editor, section “Plants and Agriculture”
  Highlighted in ALBA Synchrotron news
• Hickl D*, Drews F*, Girke C, Zimmer D, Mühlhaus T, Hauth J, Nordström K, Trentmann O, Neuhaus HE, Scheuring D, Fehlmann T, Keller A, Simon M, Möhlmann T (2021) Differential degradation of RNA species by autophagy related pathways in Arabidopsis. J. Exp. Bot., Volume 72, Issue 20, 26 October 2021, Pages 6867–6881, doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erab321
  *authors contributed equally
  Highlighted in “Insight article”Eating the messenger (RNA): autophagy shapes the cellular RNA landscape by Girishkumar Kumaran and Simon Michaeli doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erab385
  Highlighted as „Editors Choice“
• Hickl D, Scheuring D, Möhlmann T (2021) CTP-Synthase 2 from Arabidopsis thaliana is required for complete embryo development. Front. Plant Sci. 12, 652434 doi 10.3389/fpls.2021.652434
• Bellin L, Scherer V, Dörfer E, Lau A, Vicente A, Meurer J, Hickl D, Möhlmann T (2021) Cytosolic CTP production limits the establishment of photosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Front. Plant Science, in press