Christell van der Vyver Institute for Plant Biotechnology
Natural Science Building,
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch
South Africa
Research Interest
As plant biotechnologist I focus on in vitro plant regeneration systems and inducing genetic alteration in plants. I am involved in the Institute?s day-to-day development and execution of genetic transformation of sugarcane, wheat and model plant species such as tobacco, potato and Medicago. These plants are genetically manipulated mainly to increase abiotic stress tolerance and to understand carbohydrate metabolism and partitioning in plants, and they play a major role in the sugarcane industry with regard to improving cultivars and testing gene function. I am also particularly interested in developing improved systems for in vitro selection and in exploring the potential of mutation induction to generate useful phenotypes in crop species, especially for abiotic stress tolerance