Edwige Souleyre: Plant Physiology First Author

Edwige Souleyre, first author of “Alcohol Acyl Transferase Genes at a High Flavor Intensity Locus Contribute to Ester Biosynthesis in Kiwifruit”

Current Position: Scientist, Kiwifruit New Cultivar group, Fruit Quality team, The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Auckland, New Zealand.

Education: BSc and MSc in Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Blaise Pascal, France. MPhil in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Abertay / Scottish Crop Research Institute (now known as The James Hutton Institute), Scotland.

Non-scientific Interests: Travelling, nature, photography, motorcycling, reading, crafts and decorating. I believe a smile goes a long way.

Brief bio: My research focuses on volatile organic compounds. I am particularly interested in ester and terpene biosynthesis in fruits and how these compounds affect fruit flavor.  My expertise includes genomic, molecular and biochemistry techniques. My recent research has focused on characterizing transgenic kiwifruit and apple plants in which flavor related genes have been manipulated. I grew up in Auvergne, France, where I was exposed to nature and agriculture from an early age. I have always been fascinated with plant biology and love eating fruit. During my MPhil, I investigated changes in the carbohydrate metabolism during ripening of strawberries.  I migrated to New Zealand in 2001 to work for Plant & Food Research (former HortResearch) initially as a research associate and then as a scientist. I have been a visiting Researcher at Plant Research International at Wageningen and at ENSAT in Toulouse.