Danièle Werck-Reichhart

Fellowship 2013

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After an initial training in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Danièle Werck is awarded a PhD in 1978 and an Habilitation in 1985, in Molecular Biology with a Plant Biology orientation, at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg. A industrial post-doct on herbicides metabolism (Roussel-Uclaf) is followed by a recruitment by CNRS in 1980 in the CNRS UA1182 headed by the Pr. H. Duranton. Her CNRS carrier is interrupted by two sabbaticals, one at University of Bristol in the laboratory of the Pr. O.T.G. Jones working on heme biosynthesis in 1985, and a second at the Carnegie Institute of Stanford in the laboratory of the Pr. Chris Somerville for an initiation to Arabidopsis genomics in 1999. Since 2005, Danièle Werck is CNRS Research Director, heading the « Plant Cytochromes P450 » group and the department « Plant Metabolic Networks » of the Institute of Plant Molecular Biology of CNRS. Due to her work on cytochrome P450 enzymes and on their roles in plant metabolism (bioynthesis of biopolymers, biosynthesis of aromatic terpenoids and of molecules with therapeutic applications, metabolism of herbicides) she became a major actor in these fields.

Evolution of the plant phenolic metabolism: a search for new strategies to improve biofuel production

Fellows Fribourg-Strasbourg: Ralf Reski and Danièle Werck-Reichhart
Post-doc: Hugues Renault

The plant phenolic metabolism leads to the synthesis of biopolymers such as lignin, of antioxidants, UV-screens and compounds that are suspected to regulate plant growth. High lignin content and cross-linking in the cell walls of higher plants is a main limitation to the efficient use of the plant biomass for energy production. METABEVO proposes to reveal the structure and role of the phenolic metabolism in the moss Physcomitrella patens, an ancestral plant resistant to extreme environmental conditions and allowing targeted gene engineering that does not produce a complex lignin biopolymer, in order to improve biofuel production and to optimize plant adaptation to a more challenging climate environment. This work is expected to reveal essential aspects of plant evolution upon transition from water to land and to lead to novel strategies for biofuel production.