Recognizing The Plant Cell first authors: Chiara Baccolini
Chiara Baccolini, first author of AMP and GMP Catabolism in Arabidopsis Converge on Xanthosine which Is Degraded by a Nucleoside Hydrolase Heterocomplex
Current Position: PhD student, Department of Molecular Nutrition and Biochemistry of Plants, Institute of Plant Nutrition, Leibniz University Hannover
Education: M.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Bologna; B.S. in Biological Sciences, University of Bologna.
Non-scientific Interests: Lindy Hop dancing and Swing music, yoga, hiking.
Brief bio: In 2014 I obtained the Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Bologna, in Italy. During my Master’s thesis I studied the production of metal nanoparticle from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus. In the same year I started the PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Claus-Peter Witte at the Leibniz University of Hannover. Here I investigated the molecular mechanism underlying nitrogen remobilization in plants. In particular, my research contributed to define a revised model of the Arabidopsis purine nucleotide degradation pathway. The project combined reverse genetic approach, biochemical methods and mass spectrometry analysis, and it was fascinating to see how little pieces of information deriving from the analysis of mutant of genes involved in the pathway, ended up together, like pieces of a puzzle, to draw a clearer picture of this biological process.
