Esther Cañibano Morejón: Plant Physiology First Author

Esther Cañibano Morejón, co- first author of “CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC1 promotes seed germination by destabilizing RGA-LIKE2 in Arabidopsis”

Current Position: PhD candidate in Dr. Vicente Rubio and Dr. Sandra Fonseca´s lab, at the Spanish National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC).

Education: MSc. in Agroforestry Biotechnology at the Polytechnic University in Madrid (UPM, Madrid) and BSc. in Biology at the Complutense University (Madrid).

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, reading, dancing, gardening, swimming, and hiking.

Brief bio: Plant biology has always fascinated me, but during my Bachelor´s degree I felt a strong interest in the molecular mechanisms that control plant development and its adaptive responses to environmental conditions. This encouraged me to start my PhD in plant molecular genetics.

My current research focuses on the study and characterization of the function and biological relevance of light signalling pathway components, to gain insight in both their role within this signalling route and their implication in the regulation of further plant development processes.

I expect to focus my future research in understanding how chromatin processes enable plant adaptation to stressful conditions, such as high light or oxidative stress. Finally, in a highly changing environment, my work should help to design novel strategies for plant genetic engineering aiming to improve plant tolerance to light stress in an effort to address environmental and agricultural problems.