The PBU will provide insights into its 35th anniversary and the most exciting research topics of these decades on May 18, 2022 from 10 am - 2 pm at the Muthgasse 18 location. It all started in 1987 with the attempt to breed virus-free and later virus-resistant woody crops. This has led to the establishment of an in vitro gene bank for climate-adapted woody crops of our latitudes (apples, , pears, apricots, peaches, grapes, cornelian cherry, berry fruits, but also oil plants like Jatropha) but also of the tropics (e.g. Jatropha, coffee).
Technically, much of the work is based on the implementation of Haberlandt's pioneering idea of the totipotency of the plant cell, which also celebrates its 120th anniversary this year, and will be presented accordingly. Visitors can examine the PBU's current research objects, such as the 32000-year-old Silene from the Siberian permafrost or the 1000-year-old Dirndl from the Traisen Valley, as tissue cultures in vitro. Health-relevant constituents from plants were another focus of research. For example, numerous methods that could be used today in personalized medicine have emerged from the study of allergens from fruit and berries. Plant biotechnological methods for the molecular characterization and utilization of biodiversity, be it of crop plants, but also of phytoplasmas and other quarantine harmful organisms, are being developed and further improved.