Dr. Danièle Werck-Reichhart

University of Strasbourg
Plant Biochemistry/Biology

External Senior Fellow
October 2013 – September 2015

Last Update: 31.08.2015

Curriculum Vitae

Danièle Werck-Reichardt received a Master in Molecular Biology (1976) and a PhD in Molecular Biology (1978) at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. In 1985 she completed her Habilitation at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg. Employments: 1978-1980 post-doctoral fellow at Roussel-UCLAF; 1980-1984 CR2, CNRS UA1182, Strasbourg; 1985 sabbatical in the Department of Biochemistry (Prof. O.T.G. JONES), School of Medicine, University of Bristol, UK. 1984-1995 CR1 CNRS Strasbourg (UA1182, then UPR 406); 1999 sabbatical in the laboratory of Pr. Christopher Somerville, Carnegie Institution, Stanford, CA, USA. Since 1995 she is Research Director at CNRS (DR1 since 2009), IBMP UPR2357 Strasbourg. From 2009-2013 she was a Guest Professor at Jiao Tong University of Shanghai, China; since 2009 she is Head of the Department Plant metabolic Networks of IBMP.

Werck-Reichardt is a member of several editorial boards including Phytochemistry Reviews (2005-2008); Phytochemistry (since 2008), Frontiers in Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity (since 2011). She is also member of several Advisory Boards and Scientific Committees including the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany (since 2009), the Scientific Council of the Institute for Research and Development (since 2011), the INRA CSS EGBIP (since 2011), the Peer Review College of the Danish Council for Strategic Research (since 2009), the Examinor College of Canada Research Chairs (since 2010). She was a member of the Section 27 of the National Committee of CNRS (1995-1998), and Vice-president of the French Society of Plant Biology (2006-2008).

Selected Publications

Schoch G.A., Morant M., Abdulrazzak Tahir N., Asnaghi C., Goepfert S., Lapierre C., Petersen M., Ullmann P. and Werck-Reichhart D. (2006) The meta-Hydroxylation Step in the Phenylpropanoid Pathway: A new level of Complexity in the Pathway and its Regulation. Environ. Chem. Lett. 4,127-136.
Matsuno M., Compagnon V., Schoch G., Schmitt M., Debayle D., Bassard J.E., Pollet B., Hehn A., Heintz D., Ullmann P., Lapierre C., Bernier F., Ehlting J., Werck-Reichhart D. (2009) Retroposition and positive selection led to evolution of a novel phenolic pathway for pollen development. Science, 225:1688-1692.
Bak S, Beisson F, Bishop G, Hamberger B, Höfer R, Paquette S, Werck-Reichhart D. (2011) Cytochromes P450. The Arabidopsis book, 9: e0144. doi: 10.1199/tab.0144
Bassard JE, Richert L, Geerinck J, Renault H, Duval F, Ullmann P, Schmitt M, Meyer E, Mutterer J, Boerjan W, De Jaeger G, Mely Y, Goossens A, Werck-Reichhart D. (2012) Protein-Protein and Protein-Membrane Associations in the Lignin Pathway. Plant Cell. 24:4465-4482.
GaviraC, Höfer R, Lesot A, Lambert F, Zucca J, Werck-Reichhart D. (2013) Challenges and pitfalls of P450-dependent (+)-valencene bioconversion by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Metabol. Eng. 8:25-35.

FRIAS Project

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

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 propose new strategies 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.