Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Anna Medici

Anna Medici, first author of Identification of molecular integrators shows that nitrogen actively controls the phosphate starvation response in plants

Current Position: Associate Professor in Plant Molecular Physiology and Biochemistry, at Biology and Ecology Department, Montpellier SupAgro, France

Education: PhD in Plant Physiology, University of Poitiers, France; BS in Plant Biotechnology, IBBA, CNR, Milano, Italy

Non-scientific Interests: volley and beach volley, music and concerts

Brief bio: I am interested in plant response to the abiotic environment. I started my scientific career in Italy by focusing on the transcription factors regulation in response to drought, cold and wounding in the model plant Arabidopsis. Then I moved to France during my PhD, and my research shifted to the highly agronomical important species Grapevine. I studied the effect of water deficiency on sugar mobilization in Grapevine using biochemical and molecular biology approaches. At that time, I started to put an interest in solute transport through the plant and in the regulation of solute transporters. Then I decided to continue to study the impact of abiotic cues on nutrients transport, joining for my post doc a lab specialized in mineral nutrition in Montpellier. Here, my research focused on the characterization of molecular actors that integrate the response to nitrate and phosphate combinatorial fluctuations, using molecular physiology and systems biology approaches. In my current position, my research focus on the description of the mechanisms integrating the plant response to nitrate and phosphate provision at the root level, but I am also interested on the molecular basis of the perception and uptake of nitrogen nutrients (mineral and organic) on the leaf surfaces.