Detlef Weigel

Weigel's unique blend of biology and technology has been instrumental to the development of modern plant science. The first major finding from his laboratory was that an Arabidopsis thaliana gene could dramatically accelerate flowering of trees; this established a proof of concept for Arabidopsis genetics as a platform for biotechnological discoveries. His group later discovered the first plant microRNA mutant and identified the factor that is now known to be the long sought-after mobile flower-inducing signal. Weigel was one of the first to exploit natural genetic variation for understanding how the environment affects development and growth of wild plants. In recent years, this work has come to incorporate many other aspects at the interface of evolution and ecology: his group is investigating how wild plants can adapt to climate change and how wild plants manage to keep their pathogens at bay.

In addition to hypothesis-driven research, his group has a long history of providing new technologies and resources to the community. This has culminated in an effort to sequence the genomes of over 1000 natural A. thaliana strains (The 1001 Genomes Project).