Zahra Zangishei: Plant Physiology First Author

Zahra Zangishei, co-first author of “Parasitic plant small RNA analyses unveil parasite-specific signatures of microRNA retention, loss, and gain”

Current Position: PhD student, Institute of Biological Data Science, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany.

Education: Msc of Agriculture Biotechnology, Razi University, Iran.

Non-scientific Interests: Hiking, reading, and cooking.

Brief bio: My passion for discovering unknown led me to extend my research experience in the parasitic plants in the research group of Asst.Prof. Salari at Razi University and the research group of Prof. Krause at UiT the Arctic University of Norway. Our research, in collaboration with our colleagues, focused on microRNAs as the key players in the plant regulatory mechanisms and development in Cuscuta as the shoot-parasitic species and Orobanche as the root-parasitic species. Using in-depth investigation of the miRNA populations, the small RNA repertoire of parasitic plants was characterized and comparison of the miRNomes enabled us to indicate how microRNAs reflect the lifestyle in parasitic plants.