Núria Real Tortosa: Plant Physiology First Author

Núria Real Tortosa, first author of “Mutations in CmVPS41 controlling resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus display specific subcellular localization”

Current Position: post-doctoral fellow

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Genetics by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), including one-year as an Erasmus fellow at the Molecular Biotechnology Master’s program at  the University of applied sciences in Vienna (Austria). Master’s degree in Cytogenetics with specialization in Genomics at the UAB. And PhD in Plant Biology and Biotechnology at Dr. Martínez-Hernández group, in Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) (Barcelona, Spain).

Non-scientific Interests: hiking, gardening, second-hand and zero-waste, crafts, aerial yoga, cooking and baking vegan goods.

Brief bio: Before starting my PhD, I had two brief contacts with genomics through the genetic characterization of sex in bird species, and later by determining low-copy repeats in human genome linked to genetic diseases in University of Barcelona (UB) and UAB respectively. During my Master’s degree I was introduced to plant biology and plant pathogens and it made me gain interest. I also got to visit CRAG (Barcelona) and I could meet Dr. Montserrat Martín. Dr. Martín’s project caught my eyes immediately and she welcomed me to her team as a PhD student. My PhD project was focused on studying the molecular mechanisms underlying resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in melon. In this article you can find a part of our PhD research focused on the molecular characteristics of the main host protein that participates in CMV resistance. Last June, I successfully defended my PhD in Plant Biology and Biotechnology. This December I just started as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA, Barcelona) and I will continue to investigate plant-pathogen interactions.