The University of Göttingen is an internationally renowned research university. Founded in 1737 in the Age of Enlightenment, the University is committed to the values of social responsibility of science, democracy, tolerance and justice. It offers a comprehensive range of subjects across 13 faculties: in the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and medicine. With about 30,000 students and more than 210 degree programmes, the University is one of the largest in Germany.
New press releases
How cells boost gene expression
The function of non-coding RNA in the cell has long been a mystery to researchers. Unlike coding RNA, non-coding RNA does not produce proteins – yet it exists in large quantities. A research team from the University of Göttingen has now discovered an important function of antisense RNA (asRNA): the researchers found that asRNA acts as a "superhighway" in cell transport and thus accelerates gene expression. The results were published in Nature.
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Visiting flowers and transporting pollen in fragmented landscapes
Traditionally, interactions between plants and their pollinators are analysed on the basis of visits to flowers. A research team led by the University of Göttingen studied wild bees on chalk grassland. The researchers analysed both the networks showing visits to flowers and the networks where pollen was transported. They found that the visits by bees to flowers were not always associated with pollen collection. The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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The analysis of the universe
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has signed an agreement with an international consortium of institutions to develop and build ANDES, the ArmazoNes High Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph. The ANDES instrument will be installed on ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The scientific objectives are to search for signs of life on exoplanets, identify the first stars, test variations in the fundamental constants of physics and measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. The Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics at the University of Göttingen is also involved in this project.
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Tropical forest resilience to seasonal drought linked to nutrient availability
Tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems accounting for nearly half of the global forest carbon sink. If tropical forests can no longer remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the effects of climate change may become even more severe. In recent times, these forests have been found to be increasingly limited in nutrients, which may affect their resilience to seasonal droughts and the rate at which they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To investigate, researchers set up Africa’s first largescale nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium addition experiment in the Budongo Forest of Uganda.
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Evolutionary genomics: consequences of biodiverse reproductive systems
A new Research Training Group (RTG) in Biology at the University of Göttingen has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The RTG, entitled "Evolutionary Genomics: Consequences of Biodiverse Reproductive Systems (EvoReSt)", benefits from an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the evolution of genomes in organisms which use different forms of reproduction from the entire "Tree of Life".
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Regional differences in bird diversity in agroforestry systems
The diversity and ecological functionality of bird communities in tropical agroforestry systems are shaped by the surrounding landscape. An international research team led by Göttingen University investigated the composition and ecological traits of bird communities in 23 cacao agroforestry systems in Peru. The scientists found very different results depending on the region, and therefore emphasise the importance of tailoring agroforestry management strategies accordingly.
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