The Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) organises a large international Plant Biology Congress every two years.
The Plant Biology Europe Congress 2021 was organized together with EPSO (European Plant Science Organization) and it has been an online event.
The FESPB Young Plant Scientist Award 2021 was rewarded to Sara Izquierdo Zandalinas and Physiologia Plantarum is honored to sponsor this award.
Here Sara describes her research during her PhD and PostDoc, which was mainly about how plants acclimate to different stress combinations.
“Global warming, climate change and environmental pollution challenge plants with unique combinations of different abiotic and biotic stresses. Although much is known about how plants acclimate to each individual stress, little is known about how they respond to different combinations of these factors. Therefore, during my PhD (Dr. Aurelio Gómez-Cadenas lab at Universidad Jaume I, Spain), we studied plant responses to the combined effect of two abiotic stresses using molecular biology and plant physiology and biochemistry. The impact of my predoctoral research was recognized by the Extraordinary PhD Award from University Jaume I and Cum Laude PhD with International Mention. After that, during my postdoctoral period at the University of North Texas and University of Missouri (Dr. Ron Mittler lab, 2017-2021), we demonstrated that multifactorial stress combinations could impact an ecosystem in ways that we may not be able to currently predict and that once additional factors are introduced, they could negatively interact with each other and push the system towards a rapid collapse. This novel area of stress combination aimed to analyze the mechanisms that regulate plant responses to multifactorial stress combinations and generate biotechnological-breeding tools for developing more resilient crops in the near future.
Recently, I have been awarded the Ramon y Cajal contract from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain to develop my vision to enhance plant resistance to multifactorial stress combinations. Overall, my scientific record was recognized by the Francisco Sabater Award 2019 given by the Spanish Society of Plant Biology to the best young plant biologist, and this year’s FESPB Young Plant Scientist Award 2021.”
To contact her and more info, click here