Goodbye Marburg

Today is our last day in Marburg. It was a little sad saying goodbye to all the students and post docs at the Institute today. We have had a wonderful time in Germany. The hospitality has been marvellous. We hope to be back in March next year but we will be based in Braunschweig. Thanks to everyone. Very special thanks to Regine.

Barry & Regine at Usedom - by Shigeyuki

Introduction to the solar system while you cycle

Displays featuring each of the planets in our solar system are proportionately placed on the cycle way both south and north of Marburg. I think this is such a nice concept to remind us all that we are part of a vast universe. Great educational value for all.

Saturn station on Marburg cycle way

Saturn station on cycle way

Deutsche Post

Today I had to collect a parcel from Zurich containing my headlamp which I left there. I am not sure why they did not deliver such a small parcel to my mailbox. When I got to their centre in Bahnhofstraße the man behind the counter asked me for my passport which I didn't have but my drivers licence sufficed. Then he wanted to know if I knew what was in the parcel and where it was from! After all this questioning I finally got my headlamp. I am not sure what happens if someone sends you a surprise parcel and you have no idea where it is from or what it contains. Does Deutsche Post keep it?

Münster city tour

Last evening we had a fabulous tour of the city of Münster with a superb guide - having it in English was a big help. Münster is a city with about 1200 years of history. The tension between church and city was interesting with the leaders of the day building the city hall face to face but at a distance to the Bishop's residence. They even run him out of town for a period until he was reinstated. Although heavily bombed at the end of World War II the city residents had great foresight to rebuild the city very much what it used to be like with wonderful 3-4 storey buildings with a range of facades and lower level arches. Even today they have done a great job of trying to put up buildings that blend in with the old architecture - what a magnificent new museum - but the guide pointed out one rather ugly exception that has a sign with an eagle planted out front of it by a visiting artist. Münster was the site where the treaty was signed over 350 years ago to end the 30 year war. There is a wonderful sunken area behind the city hall that has two two metal sculptures by Eduardo Gillida to mark the decision to have dialogue to resolve conflict. There were so many things you would miss without a guide like the little metal plaque in the pavement to mark the former home of a Jewish business couple - apparently there is a nation wide effort to remember the Jews killed during the war with these plaques.

Thanks Paul and Bettina for a wonderful visit to Münster.

Münster facades

Eduardo Chillida "Toleranz durch dialog"

Winter home for the wealthy rural citizens

Plaque marking spot of former Jewish business in the city

A full day of science

Yesterday was a full day of science first with Bettina's Fusarium group in the morning, Paul & Julia's Botrytis group in the afternoon then my seminar. Still lots to discover about the structure, function, regulation and evolution of secondary metabolite gene clusters. NADP oxidases are such cool enzymes but exactly how they signal remains a big challenge but I have not had any good ideas on this for a while. Who would have thought that T4HN melanin biosynthesis in conidia and sclerotia of Botrytis could be so interesting - I look forward to seeing that publication and the many others from this group of very smart and enthusiastic researchers.

I do love the Botanic Garden at the University of Münster especially the phylogenetic garden - a great place to relax between the two science discussion sessions.

Thanks to Paul for introducing me to Bruno as it sounds like he has some great new tools that will help us better understand the cell wall of E. festucae.

Gomphocarpus physocarpus - Botanic Garden

Cacti Münster Botanic Garden

Phylogenetic garden

Some German history

The morning was science but the afternoon a little of German history with a visit to The Hermannsdenkmal to see the monument erected on the hill of Grotenburg near Detmold of Arminius the leader of the Germanic tribes that defeated the Romans around 9 AD. Subsequent investigations suggest the site of the battle was in fact northwest of this site at Kalkriese. Much to my surprise the Celts also lived in this area and an important site of worship was the Externsteine, a sandstone formation in the Teutoburg forest.

Hermannsdenkmal

Externsteine

The Claviceps team

Today I met with the Claviceps group of Lisa, Sabine, Janine, Selma and Birgit working with Paul Tudzynski in Münster. I do enjoy informal group discussions like this where the students openly share their results and there is lots of time for discussion. This was also an opportunity to see the new laboratories they moved into in 2011 - no personal bench space but just community space is concept I have not seen before but seems to work really well. Secondary metabolites, glucans, cytokinins and effectors - a wonderful mix of good science.

The Claviceps team

Barry & Paul

Plant transcriptome manuscript accepted

Great news today to hear our paper comparing transcriptome of perennial ryegrass with and without endophyte has just been accepted for publication in New Phytologist. The presence of the endophyte reprograms host metabolism and alters plant development.

Steffi's garden party

Wonderful garden party last night organised by Steffi. Really nice catching up with everyone from the  Institute in an informal setting. I particularly enjoyed seeing the young boys sharpening sticks with their knives for cooking the damper over the fire. The slack line was a challenge but a lot of fun. Also great sing-a-long led by Steffi and Philipp, beside the fire. A great night. I was not quite sure where I would catch a cab to get home but came across an ice-cream cafe still open at 11 pm run by a friendly Portuguese owner. The cab driver, originally from Tikrit in Iraq, was also very friendly and keen that I use his services from Marburg to the Frankfurt airport in two weeks!

Marino at work cooking the damper

Ascent of the Breithorn

There are 61 peaks of 4000 m or more in the European alps. Friend Hauke has climbed 58 of them over a 40 year period. I could not resist climbing one of them while in Zermatt for 4 days. The Breithorn is technically one of the easiest but still a great day out. What was very strange for me however was to start the ascent at around 3800 m from Klein Matterhorn - this point is higher than the highest peak in NZ, Aoraki or Mt Cook at 3724 m. I had forgotten the joy of crampons crunching through the ice and snow as you slowly but steadily make your way to the summit. A nice feeling of accomplishment to be on the summit but not so good once I got back down to Klein Matterhorn where the effect of the altitude kicked in. A great day out in the mountains. New crampons and boots are top of the list of purchases when I return to NZ.

The Breithorn (4124 m) - Zermatt

Barry on summit of the Breithorn

A different perspective of the Breithorn

Under the Matterhorn

On the 14th July 1865 Edward Whymper and his 6 companions reached the summit of the Matterhorn for the first time. Tragically 4 of the party were killed on the descent. It would be unthinkable today to have 7 people all roped together on a mountain. This event was to change the village of Zermatt forever. It is a mecca for tourists from all over the world. Last week we stayed here for 4 days with friends Hauke and Christa Hennecke from Zurich. Hauke and I did some climbing together in California when we were post docs at Davis. Swiss engineering is to the fore wherever you look around Zermatt. No geological barrier is too difficult to the Swiss, epitomised by the Gonergrat train that takes you to the summit of Gonergrat at around 3000 m and the cable car that takes you into the face of Klein Matterhorn.  When you get off the latter you then go through a tunnel in the mountain to emerge to a wonderland of rolling snow plateau and high mountains. But what I did find paradoxical was the cavalier approach to protecting the alpine flora. On the descent from Gonergrat to Riffelberg there is a maize of trails and even then the throng of tourists trample all over the delicate alpine flowers in their quest for another photograph without even thinking they have then ruined the spot for the next person. In NZ there would be one track and you would be required to stay on the track to protect the fragile alpine plants. This laisse faire approach to managing the alpine environment seemed very un Swiss but then this is Zermatt! The view of the glaciers and alps from Gonergrat is simply magnificent but it is also sad to see how much the glaciers have retreated in just 30 years. The outlook for this alpine spectacle is not good with ongoing global warming.

The Matterhorn

Dot, Christine, Hauke & Christa

Christine, Barry & Dot

Gorner glacier near Gronergrat

Alpine flowers near Riffleberg

Sustainable living in Freiburg

This evening we visited the suburb of Vauban in Freiburg to see the many examples of sustainable living. We were so impressed at how the apartment blocks were interspersed with green areas, play areas for children and and the energy efficient approach to living in general. Auckland could learn a lot from how to accommodate more people in a limited space yet make it highly liveable for families and in an energy efficient way. Next time we are in Freiburg we will stay at the Green Hotel.

Earlier today I caught up with Stephan Seiler and Kimberly Green, a PhD student in my lab, at Albert Ludwigs University. Kimberly has been working for 3 months in Stephan's lab supported by a DAAD fellowship. A great discussion on MAP kinases, signalling and the many connections that still need to be established to fully understand chemotropic sensing in fungi.

Green Hotel Vauban

Vauban

Sustainable living in Vauban, Freiburg

Green City

Keeping cool in Freiburg

A heat wave has swept across Central and Southern Europe the last few days. Temperatures were around 37C yesterday and today. Very hot travelling on the train from Marburg to Freiburg yesterday without any air conditioning. Today we took the cable car up to Schauinsland at 1,284 m to escape some of the heat. There are little streams of cool fresh water that run through the heart of Freiburg which are very popular places to cool the feet.

Cooling the feet in Freiburg

Clearing the backlog

Slowly but surely I am clearing the backlog of manuscripts from my lab. Today I submitted to New Phytologist our story on the appressorium like structure which we call an expressorium that enables grass endophytes to colonise from inside the grass to the outside. The term expressorium was coined by  Matthias Becker. I really like the term so I hope the referees do as well. This manuscript is jam packed with awesome TEM, SEM and confocal images taken by Matthias and Yvonne - 14 in total in the main and 8 in the supplementary.

Today I received the good news that Matt Nicholson's manuscript describing two new gene clusters for penitrem and janthitrem biosynthesis in Penicillium has been accepted for publication. Great to see that one ticked off given the work started around 2006.

Now on to Yonathan's PacC and Kimberly's Idc manuscripts.

Bureaucracy in Germany

I have been sitting on two letters from the TV company for about a month but finally got Philipp to help translate for me. As expected it was an invoice for use of the TV which is fine but I do not appear to be able to pay online. Instead I need to provide them with my internet banking details by snail mail so they can deduct the amount from my account. We can arrange for automatic debits of such things as power, telephone etc in NZ but usually there is the option of a direct bank transfer to them but this does not seem possible for this one.

A couple of days ago I received an email with an invoice for renewal of my Bahncard. My mistake again as I should have had someone translate the fine print for me. Apparently, DB Bahn automatically renews your Bahn card and charges you unless you cancel 6 weeks in advance of the expiry date. This could never happen in NZ. The company would be hauled before the Commerce Commission and required by law to change their practice as the default would never be renewal. The default would be expiry of your subscription. Very bad business practice. I suspect playing the foreign card will not work as "The rules are the rules". So looks like Euro 40 for a card that I will never use!

Homing in Braunschweig

Understanding the process of cell-cell self recognition and fusion is a biological process important in the development of many multi-cellular organisms. Neurospora crassa is a great model experimental system for understanding this process. I am currently in Braunschweig visiting Andre Fleisner's group in the Institute of Genetics, Braunschweig Technical University. I have thoroughly enjoyed my visit here meeting and talking with the students and Andre about how cell-cell fusion occurs and some pioneering studies on understanding whether N. crassa in nature is an endophyte. The attendance at my seminar was quite overwhelming - a great audience with lots of good questions.

Remarkably, I had an email last week from Torsten Thuenen who I first met in 2000 while I was in Germany for the International Endophyte meeting in Paderborn when we had discussions about possible PhD study in my lab. He had just been reading my Blog. He now has a position at the Julius Kuehn-Institute here in Braunschweig and is keen to set up an Epichloe endophyte research program. So great we were able to catch up after my seminar. Also nice to briefly catch up with Chris Eickhorst who did an internship in my lab in 2012 and Barbara Schulz who I have known for a long time and has had a long standing interest in endophytes. I just have to come back to Braunschweig next year.

I also enjoyed talking to Ralf Schnabel about Phainothea, a tool he has developed to generate abstract images that capture the phenotype of C. elegans. Wonderful science and terrific scientific art. Very generously he gave me a copy of his book entitled Aletheia that captures these abstract images and some others that express his views about science and education.

Ralf Schnablel's distance maps

Barry, Rheinhard, Andre and Ralf

GFP tagging in Göttingen

I am referring to tagging of the protein kind not the the street graffiti kind which blights many of our cities. Using GFP-labelled proteins as a handle to pull out components of protein complexes and identify them by Mass Spectrometry has been put to very good use in the Dept of Genetics and Biochemistry at Georg August Universitat in Gottingen where they have identified and characterised a number of new protein complexes in fungi including the STRIPAK complex. Its a nice example of the need for good infrastructure and equipment to do modern biology. Yesterday I visited the Dept to meet and talk with students and post docs in the labs of Gerhard Braus and Stefanie Poggleler and to give a seminar. While I had seen some of the work before at Asilomar it was nice to hear the stories again and first hand to better understand the work. Stefanie, Eva, Britta and Antonia were asking after Berit who is now in my lab in NZ. 

Georg August Universitat in Gottingen has a remarkable history in science with no less than 45 Nobel prize winners associated with this University - nearly all in Physics and Chemistry. The most recent award was in 2014 to Stefan Hell at the Max Planck for Super Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy - confocal at the nano level! 14 of the awards were for work  done at the University itself.  While out on my morning walk today I was wandering through the Stadtfriedhof (City Cemetery) to find a special memorial dedicated to the 8 Nobel prize winners buried there. 

Today I caught up with Ivo Feussner to discuss a collaboration we are setting up linked to my recent Marsden grant proposal. I first met Ivo in 2012 on my first visit to Gottingen when we discussed possible joint projects. One of the objectives in the Marsden proposal is on metabolite fingerprinting with Ivo. I think this will provide a great opportunity for exchange between our respective labs.

Nobel laureate memorial at Stadtfriedhof in Göttingen

Max Planck