Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Elodie Billey

Elodie Billey, first author of Characterization of the Bubblegum acyl-CoA synthetase of Microchloropsis gaditana

Current Position: Researcher in Microalgae Engineering, TOTAL Refining & Chemicals, France

Education: Ph.D. Plant Biology from University of Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)

Non-scientific Interests: hiking, photography, gardening

Brief bio: Elodie’s interest for plant science and molecular biology started at school and was confirmed during her Ph.D. at the Laboratory of Genome and Plant Development (LGDP, CNRS, UPVD; Perpignan, France). She addressed the question of the regulation of mRNA translation by a protein from the LARP family in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana. This topic steered her to work on the effect of LARP RNA binding protein on male gamete delivery therefore on pollen fertility. During her Ph.D., she was led to collaborate with outstanding teams. The time spent at UPVD also included a one year-teaching which represented a great opportunity for her and during which she learned a lot. Then, her curiosity led her to explore new organisms moving to a post-doctoral position on engineering of microalgal species at the Cell & Plant Physiology Laboratory (LPCV, CEA, CNRS, UGA, INRAE; Grenoble, France) in collaboration with a private company (Total RC, France), which then hired her. She discovered the broad field of lipid metabolism, in particular with the study of an ACS protein in Microchloropsis gaditana and its role in fatty acid partitioning in the cell. In the near future, Elodie will focus on deciphering microalgal metabolism by genetic engineering.