We are interested in understanding how environmental conditions influence endogenous developmental programs in plants.  One of the most important environmental signals is sunlight because it supplies the plants with energy.  It is therefore not surprising that light conditions regulate many aspects of plant development (i.e. seed germination, seedling growth, flowering time).

Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model system to study the effect of light on plant development.  Research has shown that light is perceived by photoreceptors and subsequently transduced through a signaling cascade to alter the expression of very many genes.  We are primarily studying factors involved in the light signal transduction pathway.  Through genetics we have identified a family of proteins (named SPA) that control the degradation of transcription factors involved in light signaling.  We are currently trying to unravel how the SPA proteins function on the biochemical level.  To do so, we focus on genetic, molecular and biochemical methods (i.e. gene expression analyses, protein-protein interactions, protein purifications etc.).

From 1990 to 1995, Ute Höcker pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA) where she studied the functions of the maize transcription factor Viviparous1 in the control of seed maturation.  She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Peter Quail at the University of Berkeley/Plant Gene Expression Center.  There, she initiated her work on light signal transduction in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.  In 1999, she moved to the University of Düsseldorf (Germany) to head her own group which continued to work in the field of plant photobiology.  She joined the University of Cologne as a professor in 2006.