User:Ruben Alcazar

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Contact Info

Ruben Alcazar, Plant Scientist

• Rubén Alcázar, PhD
• Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
• Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics
• Carl-von-Linné Weg, 10 - 50829 Cologne, Germany

MPIPZ SFB680

Scientific career

• Ongoing research: plant-environment interactions.
• 2010, Postdoc SFB680, MPIPZ Germany. Co-evolution of plant-pathogen interactions.
• 2008, Postdoc MPIPZ Germany. Hybrid incompatibilities in Arabidopsis thaliana.
• 2006, Postdoc BP2005, MPIPZGermany. Natural variation of growth resposes to temperature.
• 2005, Postdoc EU-ROST, University of Barcelona. Polyamines in drought stress tolerance.
• 2004, PhD Plant Biology, University of Barcelona. Polyamines in abiotic stress and regulation of development.
• 1999, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Specialization in Genetic Engineering, University of Barcelona

Research interests

• Plant-Environment Interactions. I am interested in molecular and genetic adaptive paths to environmental fluctuations in plants. My research includes abiotic and biotic signalling from a molecular, genetic and evolutionary perspective mainly in model species with a strong potential application in crops. Press release 2010

See recently published articles and reviews on this topic:

• Alcázar, R. et al. (2011) Genetic and evolutionary perspectives on the interplay between plant immunity and development. Curr.Opin.Plant Biol. in press See review

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2010) Natural variation at Strubbelig Receptor Kinase 3 drives immune-triggered incompatibilities between Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. Nat. Genet. 42, 1135-1139 See article

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2009) Incremental steps toward incompatibility revealed by Arabidopsis epistatic interactions modulating salicylic acid pathway activation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 106, 334-339 See article

• Polyamines in stress tolerance. Polyamines are small aliphatic compounds present in all living organisms. Polyamine biosynthesis is an evolutionary conserved pathway under an apparent purifying selection. Even though their essential role in stress tolerance is genetically demonstrated, molecular and signalling mechanisms underlying cell protection are relatively obscure. I am interested in gaining insight into the role of polyamines in stress tolerance for their practical direct application in crop breeding and study in depth the evolutionary history of polyamine biosynthesis.

See some of the recently published articles and reviews on this topic (see Publications for a complete list):

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2011) Integration of polyamines in the cold acclimation response. Plant Sci. 180, 31-38 See review

• Alcázar, R. et al. (2011) Polyamine metabolic canalization in response to drought stress in Arabidopsis and the resurrection plant Cratersotigma plantagineum. Plant Signal Behav. 6(2) See article

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2010) Polyamines: molecules with regulatory functions in plant abiotic stress tolerance. Planta 231, 1237-1249 See review

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2010) Putrescine accumulation confers drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants over-expressing the homologous Arginine decarboxylase 2 gene. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 48, 547-552 See article

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2006) Abscisic acid modulates polyamine metabolism under water stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. Physiol. Plant. 128, 448-455 See article

• Alcázar, R., et al. (2005) Overexpression of ADC2 in Arabidopsis induces dwarfism and late-flowering through GA deficiency. Plant J. 43, 425-436 See article

Publications

List of publications and citations

Useful links

• MPIPZ
• Universitat de Barcelona

• SFB680
• COST-INPAS Action on abiotic stress tolerance

• 1001 Arabidopsis genomes
• TAIR
• Genevestigator - microarray database

Upcoming Events

• 21 June 2011, Seminar Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Münster link