TEM

is used to visualize small cell compartments. With this tool it is possible to observe changes in stressed cell organelles which are involved in photosynthesis. This is an important contribution to the physiological and biochemical research done by this institute.
One interest of our research is the 3D reconstruction of cell organelles and their ultrastructural integrity which is based on series of ultrathin sections. With this emerging method it is possible to reconstruct ultrastructural changes of cell organelles which are caused by stress or diurnal changes. With this powerful tool it is also possible to determine areas and volumes of single structures. Additionally, our research team is using histo- and cytohistochemical methods in order to detect subcellular changes of certain metabolites which play important roles in the antioxidative defense of plants (e.g. ascorbate, glutathione, etc.).
These investigations are aimed to collect data about differences in the antioxidative defense mechanisms between stressed (high light, heavy metal, drought, pathogen infection) and "healthy" plants which will help to develop new defense strategies for agricultural use in the future.

At the moment our research team is cooperating with the following institutions:

Institute of Biochemistry, TU-Graz, Austria
Institute of Moleculare Biotechnology, TU-Graz, Austria
Institute of Moleculare Biosciences, KFU-Graz, Austria
Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Plant Protection Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary