B Hohn

Biography

The earlier, but very important pioneering accomplishments of nominee was establishment of bacteriophage lambda DNA packaging through which she was recognised in the area of Lambda bacteriophage biology. As an extension of this, cosmids were developed which allowed cloning of large fragments of DNA and libraries of genomic DNA. Between 1980-1995 she contributed in major ways to the understanding of mechanism of genetic transformation of plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, unravelling the roles of virulence proteins. She investigated environmental influences on plant genomic stability. Not only chemical agents break DNA and lead to genomic rearrangements but also plant pathogens have such an effect – this was absolutely novel finding of her. Her most exciting finding was plants even “remember” environmental stress and transmit the elevated genome-instability phenotype to offspring. In 1992 she received the Science Prize of the City of Basel.

Research Interest

Biology of, Genetic Stablity / Flexibility of Plant Genomes