María Josefina Poupin

• PhD in Biological Sciences
• Professor (Associate) at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile

Current climate projections for mid-latitude regions globally indicate an intensification of wind-driven coastal upwelling due to warming conditions. The dynamics of mid-latitude coastal upwelling are marked by environmental variability across temporal scales, which affect key physiological processes in marine calcifying organisms and can impact th...

Despite recent advances in understanding the role of microorganisms in plant holobiont metabolism, physiology, and fitness, several relevant questions are yet to be answered, with implications for ecology, evolution, and sustainable agriculture. This article explores some of these questions and discusses emerging research areas in plant microbiomes...

Background and Aims Nitrogen (N) is essential for plant growth, yet the role of diazotrophic bacteria in non-nodulating plants, particularly from the β-class Pseudomonadota, remains unclear. We explored the mechanisms underlying the interaction of Cupriavi- dus taiwanensis LMG19424, belonging to this group and known for nodulation induction in Mimo...

Background and Aims Nitrogen (N) is essential for plant growth, yet the role of diazotrophic bacteria in non-nodulating plants, particularly from the β-class Pseudomonadota, remains unclear. We explored the mechanisms underlying the interaction of Cupriavidus taiwanensis LMG19424, belonging to this group and known for nodulation induction in Mimosa...

Magnetic field (MF) effects have been reported in plants' growth, seed germination, gene expression, and water consumption. Accordingly, magnetic treatments have been proposed as a sustainable alternative to improve yields. Nevertheless, a comprehensive quantitative assessment is needed to understand whether their effects are general, species-speci...

As holobiont, a plant is intrinsically connected to its microbiomes. However, some characteristics of these microbiomes, such as their taxonomic composition, biological and evolutionary role, and especially the drivers that shape them, are not entirely elucidated. Reports on the microbiota of Arabidopsis thaliana first appeared more than ten years...

Phosphorus (as phosphate, Pi) and iron (Fe) are critical nutrients in plants that are often poorly available in the soil and can be microbially affected. This work aimed to evaluate how plant-rhizobacteria interaction changes due to different Pi or Fe nutritional scenarios and to study the underlying molecular mechanisms of the microbial modulation...

Laternula elliptica is a key bivalve species and widely distributed around the Antarctic continent. This bivalve has been the study subject in several studies centered on ecological, physiological, biochemical, and behavioral patterns. However, little is known about the chemistry and the biomechanical properties of the shells of this mollusk. Here,...

Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) are a useful tool for a more realistic understanding of the outcomes of multiple biotic interactions where microbes, plants, and the environment are players in time and space of a multidimensional and complex system. Toward a more in-depth overview of the knowledge that has been achieved using SynComs in th...

Plants must deal with harsh environmental conditions when colonizing abandoned copper mine tailings. We hypothesized that the presence of a native microbial community can improve the colonization of the pioneer plant, Baccharis linearis , in soils from copper mining tailings. Plant growth and microbial community compositions and dynamics were deter...

Ocean Acidification (OA) can have pervasive effects in calcifying marine organisms, and a better understanding of how different populations respond at the physiological and evolutionary level could help to model the impacts of global change in marine ecosystems. Due to its natural geography and oceanographic processes, the Chilean coast provides a...

Plant defense responses to biotic stresses are complex biological processes, all governed by sophisticated molecular regulations. Induced systemic resistance (ISR) is one of these defense mechanisms where beneficial bacteria or fungi prime plants to resist pathogens or pest attacks. In ISR, the defense arsenal in plants remains dormant and it is on...

Coastal biota is exposed to continuous environmental variability as a consequence of natural and anthropogenic processes. Responding to heterogeneous conditions requires the presence of physiological strategies to cope with the environment. Ecosystems influenced by upwelling endure naturally cold, acidic and hypoxic conditions, nevertheless they su...

There have been over 25 independent unicellular to multicellular evolutionary transitions, which have been transformational in the complexity of life. All of these transitions likely occurred in communities numerically dominated by unicellular organisms, mostly bacteria. Hence, it is reasonable to expect that bacteria were involved in generating th...

Geographically widespread species must cope with environmental differences between habitats. Information concerning geographic variations in response to climate variability is critical because many morphological, life-history and physiological traits show variation across space. Reciprocal transplant experiments have shown to be relevant to evaluat...

Abiotic stress has a growing impact on plant growth and agricultural activity worldwide. Specific plant growth promoting rhizobacteria have been reported to stimulate growth and tolerance to abiotic stress in plants, and molecular mechanisms like phytohormone synthesis and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deamination are usual candidates proposed...

Modulation of phytohormones homeostasis is one of the proposed mechanisms to explain plant growth promotion induced by beneficial rhizobacteria (PGPR). However, there is still limited knowledge about the molecular signals and pathways underlying these beneficial interactions. Even less is known concerning the interplay between phytohormones in plan...

Salinity is one of the major limitations for food production worldwide. Improvement of plant salt-stress tolerance using plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has arisen as a promising strategy to help overcome this limitation. However, the molecular and biochemical mechanisms controlling PGPR/plant interactions under salt-stress remain uncle...

Environmental transitions leading to spatial physical–chemical gradients are of ecological and evolutionary interest because they are able to induce variations in phenotypic plasticity. Thus, the adaptive variability to low-pH river discharges may drive divergent stress responses [ingestion rates (IR) and expression of stress-related genes such as...

Environmental transitions leading to spatial physical-chemical gradients are of ecological and evolutionary interest because they are able to induce variations in phenotypic plasticity. Thus, the adaptive variability to low-pH river discharges may drive divergent stress responses [ingestion rates (IR) and expression of stress-related genes such as...

Phenotypic adaptation to environmental fluctuations frequently occurs by preexisting plasticity and its role as a major component of variation in physiological diversity is being widely recognized. Few studies have considered the change in phenotypic flexibility among geographic populations in marine calcifiers to ocean acidification projections, d...

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) induce positive effects in plants, such as increased growth or reduced stress susceptibility. The mechanisms behind PGPR/plant interaction are poorly understood, as most studies have described short-term responses on plants and only a few studies have analyzed plant molecular responses under PGPR coloniza...

Lineal regression between rosette area and days after sowing, under the different treatments. Data were Log10 transformed, and each circle or triangle represents data from one plant. (TIF)

Examples of up-regulated genes under PsJN treatment classified in different functional categories*. (DOCX)

Examples of down-regulated genes under PsJN treatment classified in different functional categories*. (DOCX)

Molecular functions affected by strain PsJN and K-PsJN treatments. Molecular functions of the up-regulated genes or down-regulated genes under the different. (TIF)

Changes in gene expression in PsJN and K-PsJN-treated plants. Venn diagrams of up-regulated and down-regulated genes in complete plants of 4 rosette leaves stages under PsJN or K-PsJN treatments. The intersections show the number of genes that are. (TIF)

Complete list of genes that are regulated by K-PsJN treatment. (XLSX)

Complete list of genes that are regulated by PsJN treatment. (XLSX)

List of real time RT-PCR primers. Melting temperature and references, if applicable, are indicated. (DOCX)

Although not fully understood, molecular communication in the rhizosphere plays an important role regulating traits involved in plant-bacteria association. Burkholderia phytofirmans PsJN is a well-known plant growth promoting bacterium, which establishes rhizospheric and endophytic colonization in different plants. A competent colonization is essen...

It is considered that extreme environmental temperature, rather than mean temperatures exert a selective pressure in ectotherms. Consequently, it is important to understand how the predicted increase in temperature variance with a higher frequency of extreme events in climate change is likely to impact on organisms. Thermal tolerance traits (i.e. c...

The SET DOMAIN GROUP (SDG) proteins represent an evolutionarily-conserved family of epigenetic regulators present in eukaryotes and are putative candidates for the catalysis of lysine methylation in histones. Plant genomes analyses of this family have been performed in arabidopsis, maize, and rice and functional studies have shown that SDG genes ar...

Although the flowering process in herbaceous species has been well characterized, the genetic, hormonal and environmental factors regulating flower development in fruit crop species are far from being elucidated. Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is a woody plant belonging to the Core Eudicots, with significant agricultural importance. The reproductive...

Anthocyanins and tannins are two of the most abundant flavonoids found in grapevine, and their synthesis is derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway. As described for model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, maize and petunia, the end-point branches of this pathway are tightly regulated by the combinatorial interaction of three families of regul...

Genes VvPI from Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon and LePI from Lycopersicon esculentum are described; together with the use of these genes to produce sterile male flowers and seedless or parthenocarpic fruits. Silencing vectors that comprise these sequences or a part thereof are disclosed. The methods of the invention are directed to producing...

Pinus radiata is one of the most important forestry species in the southern hemisphere. This work describes the regeneration of this plant via somatic embryogenesis from immature zygotic embryos. To improve this process, somatic embryogenic cell suspensions were established in liquid media for the generation of material for embryo maturation. Each...

The B class of MADS-box floral homeotic genes specifies petal and stamen identity in angiosperms. While this group is one of the most studied in herbaceous plant species, it has remained largely uncharacterized in woody species such as grapevine. Although the B class PI/GLO and AP3/DEF clades have been extensively characterized in model species, th...

Traditional breeding has been widely used in forestry. However, this technique is inefficient because trees have a long and complex life cycle that is not amenable to strict control by man. Fortunately, the development of genetic engineering is offering new ways of breeding and allowing the incorporation of new traits in plant species through the i...

Método para la producción de semillas artificiales de coníferas, de preferencia Pinus radiata, mediante el cultivo de embriones en un medio nutritivo en las etapas de mantención y maduración y posterior encapsulación en alginato de sodio.