Ana Arnaiz: Plant Physiology First Author

Ana Arnaiz, first author of “Hydroxynitrile lyase defends Arabidopsis against Tetranychus urticae“

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain

Education: PhD in Biotechnology and Genetic Resources of Plants and Associated Microorganisms

Non-scientific Interests: music, travelling, walking

Brief bio:

She developed her PhD in Plant Biotechnology focusing in the identification and characterization of genes involved in the plant defence against the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) infestation. T. urticae is an extremely polyphagous species found worldwide, that feeds on nearly 1,100 documented host plants, including about 150 agronomically important crops. It is considered one of the most significant agricultural threats. Therefore, she has tried to elucidate how plants defend themselves against pest attack at different levels of the signal transduction pathway (perception, signalling and final defence molecules), in order to identify new targets to stop the advance of the pest without the need of using polluting pesticides for the environment.

Currently, she is doing a postdoctoral stay of two years at the Polymer Research Group of the University of Burgos (Spain), to study and characterize biological materials and sensors. She is developing sensor polymers for the detection of molecules of interest in water, environment or biological fluids in order to be applied in the biomedical, food or environmental industry.