Alisdair Fernie leads the Central Metabolism Group at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology. His research group focuses on understanding the co-ordination of energy metabolism and assimilate partitioning as well as understanding the genetics underpinning metabolic regulation. Forward and reverse genetics coupled with metabolomics and yield physiology are the research tools used in these studies - which additionally aim at determining which reactions are canalized and which display environmental plasticity. With respect to source-sink interactions, most research in the laboratory is carried out on cassava, tomato and common bean. Source-to-sink interaction | Metabolic Regulation |Tomato |Cassava |Common bean