News
Researchers from CBGP, CTB, and IDSSC are working on the development of a Covid-19 diagnostic kit
The research group of Dr. Araceli Diaz-Perales from the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP, UPM-INIA), a joint center of the UPM and INIA, together with the Laboratory of Óptica, Fotónica y Biofotónica (GOFB) of the Centre of Biomedical Technologies de Tecnología Biomédica (CTB, UPM), and in collaboration with the Health Institute of San Carlos Clinical Hospital (IDSSC) and the National Biotechnology Center (CNB-CSIC), have been working since March on improving the diagnosis of Covid-19 and developing a new kit that is more complete and cheaper than the current ones.
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Which genes determine fungal life-style in the interaction with plants?
The fungus Plectosphaerella cucumerina is a pathogen of some crops and a model organism for the study of Arabidopsis thaliana basal and nonhost resistance to necrotrophic fungi. In this work, researchers of the Plant Innate Immunity and Resistance to Necrotrophic Fungi group of CBGP have sequenced and compared the genomes and transcriptomes of three Plectosphaerella strains. They demonstrate that the diverse lifestyles and pathogenicity of these strains are determined by the expression of specific fungal and plant genes at early stages of colonization. The Plectosphaerella spp. genomes and transcriptomes described in this article are the first published of this fungal species and also the first genomic project of plant fungal pathogens led by CBGP researchers.
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MtCOPT2 is a mycorrhiza-specific copper transporter
In this work, we study the first metal transporter specific of a symbiosis essential for growth of 85% terrestrial plants in natural environments and for sustainable productivity of most crops.
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Angel Goñi-Moreno joins the new Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering Program of the CBGP to lead the new Biocomputing group
Dr. Angel Goñi-Moreno joins the new CBGP Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering program, and establishes the Biocomputation Lab. He comes from Newcastle University (UK), where he has been Principal Investigator since 2016. Previous to this, Dr. Goñi-Moreno spend 6 years of postdoctoral experience in Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and the National Centre for Biotechnology CNB-CSIC (Spain). His work sits at the interface of computing and biology, aiming at engineering biological systems with human-defined information processing abilities.
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Dsup, a protein unique to tardigrades, protects DNA from radiation: How does it do it?
Dsup, a protein unique to tardigrades, protects DNA from damage produced by radiation and radicals. We present the first computational study on the Dsup-DNA interaction at atomic detail. Our results suggest that Dsup adjusts its structure to fit DNA's shape providing an electric shielding which could be paramount in protecting DNA from radiation.
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Metal nicotianamine transporter MtYSL3 delivers iron and zinc for nitrogen fixation
The iron and zinc delivered by the YSL3 protein is used in symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume root nodules, one of the main sustainable alternatives to the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers.
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