Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Feussner, Ivo, Prof. Dr.

Professor of Biochemistry


  • 1990 Diploma (Chemistry), Philipps-University, Marburg
  • 1993 Dr. rer. nat., Philipps-University, Marburg
  • 1997 - 1999 Leader of an independent research group at the Institute for Plant Biochemistry (IPB), Halle/Saale
  • 2000 Habilitation (Biochemistry), Martin-Luther-University, Halle/Saale
  • 2000 - 2002 Leader of an independent research group at Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben
  • 2001 Habilitation-Prize of the Ernst Schering Research Foundation
  • since 2002 Professor of Biochemistry, Georg-August-University, Göttingen
  • 2009 Fellow of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences, Leipzig(
  • 2012 Terry-Galliard Medal(
  • 2013 Fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Göttingen



Major Research Interests

The group is currently studying different aspects of the lipid metabolism of plants, algae, mosses and fungi. In this context we are primarily interested in the metabolism of structural lipids and lipid-derived signal transduction processes. For this purpose, we make use of both classical techniques as analytical chemistry and biochemistry as well as of modern approaches in the area of molecular genetics, including the generation of transgenic organisms („gain-of-function“) or mutants („loss-of-function“).

Biochemistry and function of oxylipin metabolism:
We are interested in physiological functions of lipid peroxidation processes. Thus we analyze the function of specific lipoxygenases, i.e. the role of their products, so-called oxylipins (oxygenated fatty acid derivatives), as signals or defence substances during biotic and abiotic stress. Lipid peroxidation reactions are analysed in general by metabolomic approaches. Other studies deal with the role of oxylipins in mosses and algae. In addition the catalytic mechanism of lipoxygenases and related dioxygenases is analysed.

Biochemistry of the biosynthesis of structural lipids:
We study the biochemical pathways or networks that led to an increase in the seed oil content of oilseed crop plants and oleogenous algae. Two other projects deal with the biochemistry and function of sphingolipids in plants with wax ester forming enzymes. In addition we aim to identify chemical signals by metabolomics approaches that are exchanged during the interaction between insects and Arabidopsis thaliana.


Homepage Department/Research Group

http://www.plant-biochem.uni-goettingen.de/



Selected Recent Publications


  • Rekhter D, Lüdke D, Ding Y, Feussner K, Zienkiewicz K, Lipka V, Wiermer M, Zhang Y, and Feussner I (2019) Isochorismate-derived biosynthesis of the plant stress hormone salicylic acid. Science 365, 498-502
  • Lenarčič T, Albert I, Böhm H, Hodnik V, Pirc K, Zavec AB, Podobnik M, Pahovnik D, Žagar E, Pruitt R, Greimel P, Yamaji-Hasegawa A, Kobayashi T, Zienkiewicz A, Gömann J, Mortimer JC, Fang L, Mamode-Cassim A, Deleu M, Lins L, Oecking C, Feussner I, Mongrand S, Anderluh G, Nürnberger T (2017) Eudicot plant-specific sphingolipids determine host selectivity of microbial NLP cytolysins. Science 358, 1431-1434
  • Tarazona P, Feussner K, Feussner I (2015) Enhanced plant lipidomics method based on multiplexed LC-MS reveals additional insights into cold and drought-induced membrane remodeling. Plant J. 84, 621-633
  • Marmon SK, Sturtevant D, Herrfurth C, Chapman KD, Stymne S, Feussner I (2017) Two acyltransferases contribute differently to linolenic acid levels in seed oil. Plant Physiol. 173, 2081-2095.
  • Newie J, Neumann P, Werner M, Mata RA, Ficner R, Feussner I (2017) Lipoxygenase 2 from Cyanothece sp. controls dioxygen insertion by steric shielding and substrate fixation. Sci. Rep. 7, 2069