Margarete Baier

Margarete Baier is a Professor at Freie Universität Berlin, leading the Plant Physiology Group within the Institute of Biology. Her research focuses on plant responses to environmental stresses, particularly the role of chloroplast antioxidant systems, reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling, and stress memory mechanisms like cold priming. She investigates how plants adapt to abiotic and biotic stressors through molecular, genetic, and physiological pathways.

Her work explores chloroplast-to-nucleus communication, redox regulation, and transcriptional control of genes encoding peroxidases and other antioxidant enzymes. Key interests include:

• ROS detoxification in chloroplasts under light/cold stress
• Cold priming's impact on plant immunity and pathogen resistance
• Regulation of ascorbate peroxidases and their role in stress memory
• Natural variation in stress adaptation among Arabidopsis ecotypes

Baier's recent publications emphasize plant immunity potentiation via cold priming, redox-sensitive transcription factors (e.g., RAP2.4), and chloroplast peroxidase systems. Trends include cross-kingdom stress memory mechanisms, thylakoid membrane signaling, and metabolic dampening of stress responses.

She teaches courses in plant physiology, bioinformatics, and physiological biology, and mentors BSc/MSc students in projects on stress acclimation. Her lab utilizes molecular genetics, transcriptomics, and biochemical assays to dissect stress signaling networks.