PD Dr. Ralf Welsch

Focus of research

• Regulation of plant proliferation
• Metabolism and signaling of carotenoid degradation products
• Biotechnology

CV

• Since 2018 group leader, project “InnoBeet – Developing a high-throughput genotype-independent regeneration system for accelerating breeding innovation in sugar beet“, Molecular Plant Physiology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2017–2018 Group leader “Nutritional Genomics for Micronutrient-Dense Crops, Phase II” Cell Biology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2015 Habilitation in Cell Biology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2015–2016 Postdoc, “Nutritional Genomics for Micronutrient-Dense Crops, Phase I“ Cell Biology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2011–2014 Principle Investigator, DFG-Fellowship „Carotenoid Steady-State Regulation”, Cell Biology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2003–2010 Postdoc “Developing Improved Golden Rice, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg
• 2000–2002 Researcher, Greenovation Plant Technology GmbH and University of Freiburg
• 1996–2000 PhD in Cell Biology, Faculty for Biology, University of Freiburg

Selected publications

• Camagna M, Grundmann A, Bär C, Koschmieder J, Beyer P, Welsch R* (2018) Enzyme fusion removes competition for geranylgeranyl diphosphate in carotenogenesis. Plant Physiol pp.01026.2018
• Álvarez D, Voß B, Maass D, Wüst F, Schaub P, Beyer P, Welsch R* (2016) Carotenogenesis Is Regulated by 5′UTR-Mediated Translation of Phytoene Synthase Splice Variants. Plant Physiol 172: 2314–2326
• Zhou X, Welsch R*, Yang Y, Álvarez D, Riediger M, Yuan H, Fish T, Liu J, Thannhauser TW, Li L* (2015) Arabidopsis OR proteins are the major posttranscriptional regulators of phytoene synthase in controlling carotenoid biosynthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112: 3558–3563
• Arango J, Jourdan M, Geoffriau E, Beyer P, Welsch R* (2014) Carotene Hydroxylase Activity Determines the Levels of Both -Carotene and Total Carotenoids in Orange Carrots. Plant Cell 26: 2223–2233
• Welsch R, Arango J, Bar C, Salazar B, Al-Babili S, Beltran J, Chavarriaga P, Ceballos H, Tohme J, Beyer P* (2010) Provitamin A Accumulation in Cassava (Manihot esculenta) Roots Driven by a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in a Phytoene Synthase Gene. Plant Cell 22: 3348–3356