Every Summer Semester, Ecotox Master students do a 2-month internship or AMEO (Applied Module at an External Organization). Today, Karolina Kulas shares her AMEO experience working at the Julius Kühn Institute in Siebeldingen.
I am Karolina and in the summer of 2025 I spent two unforgettable months doing an internship at the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Siebeldingen. JKI is a research centre specialising in cultivated plants (mainly grapevines in the Landau region). The institute has two main departments: Grapevine Breeding and Plant Protection in Viticulture, both of which tackle major challenges facing modern winegrowing, such as climate change and the increasing pressure from diseases and pests.
I joined the Breeding Department, where my main project focused on sunburn damage in grapes. As part of the three-year KliWiReSSE project, I analyzed different grape varieties to identify those with higher resilience.
My work involved early-morning field sampling to collect grape clusters, heat-stress experiments in a controlled climate chamber, microscope photography of individual berries, and finally image evaluation by estimating the sunburn intensity (0–100%). These data were then statistically analysed using R programming and presented as boxplots. There was a possibility of contributing to a research paper if you did a particularly good job or participated in genotyping, but time flew by too quickly, and I couldn’t fit it in. Maybe someone else will get the chance! (Looking at you, new interns👀).
Besides my main project, I was measuring the stomatal conductance of grape leaves using a porometer and scoring the BBCH growth scale, which is great for anyone who loves fieldwork. In addition to these tasks, I tested the resistance of different grape varieties to downy mildew. This involved preparing small, round sections of leaves and evaluating their images to estimate the percentage of infection. I inspected the leaf discs for their hairiness, as it can affect their susceptibility to fungal diseases. Two JKI research papers related to this topic are linked at the end of this post.
I also got an insight into how AI is being integrated into grapevine breeding research. To replace manual, labor-intensive counting, I worked on a project to develop a tool that could automatically count grape seeds, as the number of seeds could help assess a variety’s reproductive potential for breeding.
JKI has a wonderful, partly international team of scientists. A big plus is that every Friday, it offers seminars on current projects and topics. Beyond the work itself, there’s a lot of fun happening around Siebeldingen in summer. Apart from the famous wine festivals, JKI organizes its own events, including blind wine tastings, a small institute festival (usually at the end of August) and even some surprises, like a day of free delicious food. We also had visitors from France and the US. Lastly, it was impossible not to enjoy the beautiful surrounding landscapes while on my way to JKI.
I had a fantastic time there! I would especially recommend doing grape research during late summer and early fall (July–September), when the grapes are fully ripe and ready for experiments. During the course of my internship, I learned so much about grapevine breeding and genetics, which is especially useful if you plan to stay in the local “German Tuscany” region around Landau. I’m very much grapeful (pun intended) to my supervisor, Dr. Nagarjun Malagol, for giving me the opportunity to experience all of this💕
Also, greetings to all the wonderful people at JKI, especially Johanna, Nina, Alex, Christine, Clarissa, Priyanka, Vanessa, and Nishant, with whom I spent most of my time!
Links to published articles mentioned in the text:
Downy mildew assays: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/9/1768
Assessing leaf hairiness: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-85336-0