A man with red hair, wearing a striped shirt looks into the camera.
Charles Melnyk. Photo: Jenny Svennås-Gillner

Charles Melnyk, professor of plant physiology

Page reviewed:  10/06/2025

Charles Melnyk is a professor of plant physiology since 1 March 2024. His inauguration lecture has the title "Connecting plants to friend or foe".

Charles Melnyk explores how tissues from different plants can fuse during grafting as well as when parasitic plants infect their hosts. In recent years, his research group has described the physiological and molecular basis for graft formation. They have discovered genes, tissue properties and conditions important for successful grafting. Using this knowledge, they have significantly widened the number of species that can be successfully grafted and developed new combinations of grafted plants.

 

A man and a woman wearing green coats study a small plant in a greenhouse.
Charles Melnyk and Postdoc Frauke Augstein examining grafted tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse of SLU Uppsala Biocenter. Photo: Jenny Svennås-Gillner

 

Presentation video

Get to know professor Charles Melnyk and his work! Please note that English and Swedish subtitles are available.

 

Press photos

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