Plant Nutrition and Physiology

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Understanding of fundamental and applied aspects of plant mineral nutrition and plant nutritional physiology is the main research area. Role of plant nutrition in i) mitigating abiotic stress (such as heat and drought), ii) climate change-linked stress and iii) improving nutritional value of food crops are the high priority research tasks.

Crop plants are often exposed to diverse environmental stress conditions which are becoming more frequent with the global warming. Our on-going research activities are focused on characterization of the role of adequate plant mineral nutrition in mitigating stress-related decreases in plant growth, and identify major physiological mechanisms involved in protection of plants from stress conditions. In these studies, a particular attention is paid to the contribution of mineral nutrition to the antioxidative defense mechanisms of plants. Second major research topic of the group is related to Hidden Hunger problem in human populations (i.e., deficiencies of micronutrients including zinc, iron, iodine and selenium). Hidden Hunger affects health of about two billion people worldwide and associated with reduced dietary intake of micronutrients. An extensive research program is ongoing investigating i) the role of agronomic and genetic approaches for improving concentrations of micronutrients in food crops and ii) understanding physiological and molecular mechanisms affecting the root uptake, shoot transport and seed deposition of micronutrients.