Plants continuously acclimate to changes in their environment. Within their cells, chloroplasts sense environmental changes and control cellular responses. In the "Sonderforschungsbereich" TRR-175, groups from the LMU München, the HU Berlin, the MPI for Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm, and the TU Kaiserslautern have teamed up to discover how plants translate changes in light and temperature into cellular responses and to identify the molecular switches that are central to this. The department of Molecular Biotechnology & Systems Biology participates with three projects: AG Mühlhaus, AG Willmund and AG Schroda.

In the DFG research group FOR2092, scientists from the LMU München, the HU Berlin, the University of Bayreuth, the University of Bochum, and the TU Kaiserslautern have teamed up to study the underlying mechanisms of thylakoid membrane biogenesis. The AG Schroda works on a protein termed VIPP1 which plays an essential role in the biogenesis and repair of thylakoid membrane protein complexes.

Iron-sulfur (FeS) centers are essential protein cofactors in all forms of life. In particular, FeS centers function as enzyme cofactors in catalysis and electron transfer, and they function as sensors of environmental conditions. Moreover, they are indispensable for the biosynthesis of other protein cofactors including complex metal-clusters. In spite of recent fundamental breakthroughs in metalloenzyme research, it has become evident that studies on single enzymes needs to be transformed into the broader context of a living cell where biosynthesis, function, and assembly/disassembly of these fascinating metal cofactors are coupled in a dynamic fashion. In the SPP 1927, 28 groups work together to address this issue. The AG Schroda investigates the function of three chloroplast J-domain proteins that contain [4Fe4S] clusters and provides mass spectrometry support to members of the consortium via the Center for MS Analytics.