The lab head, Prof. Dr. Esteban Hopp, has
established the group in 1983. The lab has produced the first transgenic
potato plants in Latin America focussed on plant-pathogen interaction studies
at molecular levels. Biotechnological applications have been derived from
these pioneer studies such as transgenic potato plants resistant to PLRV
(potato leaf roll virus) and PVY (potato virus Y) and to fungus infections.
Several other Solanaceae wild species are used in the lab for positional
cloning of phytopathogen reacting genes. In the same line, the group is interested
in the understanding of molecular events leading to plant symptoms upon viral
infections mediated by miRNAs. Recently, the group has set a partnership
of cooperation with the Max Planck
Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany through the establishment
of a partner group working in close collaboration with the Department of
Prof. Dr. Willmitzer in Golm in the field of plant genomics and metabolomics.
Specifically, to carry out active research on plant functional genomic with
an emphasis given to the dissection of important traits of the tomato crop
through the identification, isolation and functional analysis of genes determining
nutritional properties of the fruits. In this field, the group collaborates
with the GaTE lab head by Drs. Magdalena
Rossi and Marie-Anne Van Sluys.
Moreover, the Institute constituted an Integrated Unit with the Science
Faculty of the Buenos Aires University . Over the past 13 years, aproximately
ten students had obtained their PhD working on different aspects of plant-pathogen
interactions in Solanaeae species.
Zanor MI, Osorio S, Nunes-Nesi A, Carrari F, Lohse M, Usadel B, Kuhn C, Bleiss W, Giavalisco P, Willmitzer L, Sulpice R, Zhou Y-H, Fernie AR ( 2009) RNA interference of LIN5 in Solanum lycopersicum confirms its role in controlling Brix content, uncovers the influence of sugars on the levels of fruit hormones and demonstrates the importance of sucrose cleavage for normal fruit development and fertility. Plant Physiol 150(3):1204-18.
Palmieri L, Santoro A, Carrari F, Blanco E, Nunes-Nesi A, Arrigoni R, Genchi F, Fernie AR, Palmieri F (2008) Identification and characterisation of ADNT1, a novel mitochondrial adenine nucleotide transporter from Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology 148(4):1797-808.
Bermúdez L, Urias U, Milstein D, Kamenetzky, L, Asis R, Fernie AR, Van Sluys MA, Carrari F, Rossi M (2008) A candidate gene survey of quantitative trait loci affecting chemicalcomposition in tomato fruit. Journal of Experimental Botany 59(10):2875-90.
Almasia N, Bazzini AA, Hopp HE, Vazquez-Rovere C (2008) Overexpression of snakin-1 gene enhances resistance to Rhizoctonia solani and Erwinia carotovora in transgenic potato plants. Molecular Plant Pathology 9 (3), 329-338.
Nunes-Nesi A, Carrari F, Gibon Y, Sulpice R, Graham J, Lytovchenko A, Fisahn J, Ratcliffe RG, Sweetlove, LJ, Fernie AR (2007) Deficiency of mitochondrial fumarase activity in tomato plants impairs photosynthesis via an effect on stomatal function. Plant Journal 50(6):1093-106.
Szymanski J, Bielecka M, Carrari F, Fernie AR, Hoefgen R, Nikiforova VJ (2007) On the processing of metabolic information through metabolite-gene communication networks: An approach for modelling causality. Phytochemistry 68(16-18):2163-2175.
Bazzini AA, Hopp HE, Beachy RN, Asurmendi S (2007) Infection and coaccumulation of tobacco mosaic virus proteins alter microRNA levels, correlating with symptom and plant development. PNAS 104: 12157-12162.
Asurmendi S, Berg RH, Smith TJ, Bendahmane M, Beachy RN (2007) Aggregation of TMV CP plays a role in CP functions and in coat-protein-mediated resistance. Virology 366(1): 98-106.
Bendahmane M, Chen I, Asurmendi S, Bazzini AA, Szecsi J, Beachy RN (2007) Coat protein-mediated resistance to TMV infection of Nicotiana tabacum involves multiple modes of interference by coat protein. Virology 366 (1):107-116.
Gualano N, Carrari F, Rodríguez MV, Pérez-Flores L, Sánchez R, Iusem N, Benech-Arnold R (2007) Reduced embryo sensitivity to ABA in a sprouting-susceptible sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) variety is associated with an altered ABA signalling. Seed Science Research 17:81-90.
Bazzini AA, Mongelli VC, Hopp HE, del Vas M and Asurmendi S (2007) A practical approach to the understanding and teaching of RNA silencing in plants. Electronic journal of Biotechnology 10(2): 178-190.
Frankel N, Nunes-Nesi A, Balbo I, Mazuch J, Centeno D, Iusem ND, Fernie AR and Carrari F (2007) ci21A/Asr1 expression influences glucose accumulation in potato tubers. Plant Molecular Biology 63(5):719-730.
Carrari F, Asis R and Fernie AR (2007) The metabolic shifts underlying tomato fruit development. Plant Biotechnology 24:45-55.
Bazzini AA, Hopp HE, Beachy RN and Asurmendi S (2006) Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing Does Not Play a Significant Role in Potato virus X Coat Protein Mediated Resistance. Phytopatology 96: 1175-1158.
Carrari F , Baxter C, Usadel B, Urbanczyk-Wochniak E, Zanor MI, Nunes-Nesi A, Nikiforova V, Centero D, Ratzka A, Pauly M, Sweetlove L, Fernie AR (2006) Integrated Analysis of Metabolite and Transcript Levels Reveals the Metabolic Shifts that Underlie Tomato Fruit Development and Highlight Regulatory Aspects of Metabolic Network Behavior. Plant Physiology 142(4):1380-1396.
Palmieri L, Arrigoni R, Blanco E, Carrari F , Zanor MI, Studart-Guimareas C, Fernie AR and Palmieri F (2006) Molecular identification of an Arabidopsis thaliana S-adenosylmethionine transporter: analysis of organ distribution, bacterial expression, reconstitution into liposomes and functional characterization. Plant Physiology 142(3):855-65.
Frankel N, Carrari F , Hasson E, Iusem ND (2006) Evolutionary history of the Asr gene family. Gene .378:74-83.
Carrari F and Fernie AR (2006) Metabolic regulation underlying tomato fruit development. Journal of Experimental Botany 57:1883-1897.
Schauer N, Semel Y, Roessner U, Gur A, Balbo I, Carrari F , Pleban T, Perez-Melis A, Bruedigam C, Kopka J, Willmitzer L, Zamir D, Fernie AR (2006) Profiling of tomato interspecific introgression lines facilitated the identification of pathway and network quantitative trait loci revealing that plant morphological traits are major determinants of fruit metabolic networks. Nature Biotechnology 24(4):447-454.
Urbanczyk-Wochniak E, Usadel B, Thimm O, Nunes-Nesi A, Carrari F , Davy M, Bläsing O, Kowalczyk M, Weicht D, Polinceusz A, Meyer S, Stitt M, Fernie AR (2006) Conversion of MapMan to allow the analysis of transcript data from Solanaceous species: effects of genetic and environmental alterations in energy metabolism in the leaf. Plant Molecular Biology 60(5):773-92.
Bazzini AA, Asurmendi S, Hopp HE, Beachy RN (2006) Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and potato virus X (PVX) coat proteins confer heterologous interference to PVX and TMV infection, respectively. Journal of General Virology 87:1005-12.
Carrari F, Schauer N, Willmitzer L and Fernie AR. Systems biology: A renaissance of the top-down approach for plant analysis. (2006) In: Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, Plant Metabolomics (ed. by K. Saito, R.A. Dixon, and L.Willmitzer) Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg . Chapter III Vol. 57 pp. 185-198.
Berinstein A, Vázquez-Rovere C, Asurmendi S, Gomez E, Zanetti F, Zabal O, Tozzini A, Grand DC, Taboga O, Calamante G, Barrios H, Hopp E, Carrillo E (2005) Mucosal and systemic immunization elicited by Newcastle disease virus (NDV) transgenic plants as antigens.Vaccine 23: 5583 -5589.
Kühn C, Schauer N, Carrari F, Hackel A, Fernie A and Grimm B (2005) Antisense inhibition of two different sucrose transporters from Lycopersicum esculentum impairs tomato development by two different mechanisms. Plant Journal 45(2):180-192.
Nunes-Nesi A, Carrari F, Lytovchenko A and Fernie AR (2005) Enhancing crop yield in Solanaceous species through the genetic manipulation of energy metabolism. Biochemical Society Transactions 33: 1430-1434.
Studart-Guimares C, Gibon Y, Frankel N, Wood CC, Zanor MI, Fernie AR, Carrari F (2005) Identification and characterisation of the ?' 5f and ?' 5f subunits of succinyl CoA ligase of tomato. Plant Molecular Biology 59(5):781-791.
Davies HV, Shepherd LV, Burrell MM, Carrari F, Urbanczyk-Wochniak E, Leisse A, Hancock RD, Taylor M, Viola R, Ross H, McRae D, Willmitzer L, Fernie AR (2005) Modulation of Fructokinase activity of potato (Solanum tuberosum) results in substantial shifts in tuber metabolism. Plant and Cell Physiology 46(7):1103-1115.
Nunes-Nesi A, Carrari F, Ehlers Loureiro M, Fernie AR (2005) Effect of a reduced expression of mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase results in an enhanced rate of photosynthesis in Lycopersicon esculentum. Plant Physiology 137(2):611-622.
Baxter CJ, Carrari F, Bauke A, Overy S, Hill SA, Quick P, Fernie AR , Sweetlove LJ (2005) Fruit carbohydrate metabolism in an introgression line of tomato with increased fruit soluble solids. Plant and Cell Physiology 46:425-437.
Asurmendi S, Berg H, J Koo and RN Beachy (2004) Coat protein regulates formation of replication complexes during TMV infection. PNAS 10(5) 1415-1420.
Ja Choon Koo, Sebastian Asurmendi, Jennifer Bick, Terry Woodford-Thomas and Roger Beachy (2004) Ecdysone agonist-inducible expression of a coat protein gene from Tobacco Mosaic Virus confers viral resistance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Plant J 37(3): 439-48.
Carrari F, Coll-Garcia D, Schauer N, Lytovchenko A, Palacios-Rojas N, Balbo I, Rosso M, Fernie AR (2004) Deficiency of a plastidial adenylate kinase in Arabidopsis results in elevated photosynthetic amino acid biosynthesis and enhanced growth. Plant Physiology 137(1):70-82.
Fridman E#, Carrari F#, Liu Y-S, Fernie A and Zamir D (2004) Zooming-in on a Quantitative Trait Nucleotide (QTN) for Tomato Yield using Wild Species Introgression Lines. Science 305: 1786-1789. # joint first authors.
Bender-Machado L, Büerlein M, Carrari F, Schauer N, Lytovchencko A, Gibon Y, Kelly A, E-Loureiro M, Müller-Röber B, Willmitzer L and Fernie AR (2004) Expression of a yeast acetyl-CoA hydrolase in the mitochondrion of tabacco plants inhibits growth and restricts photosynthesis. Plant Molecular Biology 55 (5): 645-662.
Fernie A, Carrari F and Sweetlove L (2004) Respiratory metabolism: glycolysis, the TCA cycle and mitochondrial electron transport. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 7: 254-261.
Carrari F, Fernie A, Iusem, N (2004) Heard it on the grapevine? ABA and sugar cross-talk: the ASR story. Trends in Plant Science 9 (2): 57-59.
Carrari F, Nunes-Nesi A, Gibon Y, Lytovchenko A, Ehlers Loureiro M, Fernie, A. (2003) Reduced expression of aconitase results in an enhanced rate of photosynthesis and marked shifts in carbon partitioning in illuminated leaves of Lycopersicon pennellii. Plant Physiology 133 (3):1322-1335.
Roessner-Tunali U, Hegemann B, Lytovchenko A, Carrari F, Bruedigam C, Granot D, Fernie A (2003) Metabolic profiling of transgenic tomato plants overexpressing hexokinase reveals that the influence of hexose phosphorylation diminishes during fruit development. Plant Physiology 133:84-99.
Carrari F, Urbanczyk-Wochniak E, Willmitzer L and Fernie A (2003) Engineering of central metabolism in crop species: learning the system. Metabolic Engineering 5:191-200.
Vazquez Rovere C, del Vas M, Hopp EH (2002) RNA-mediated virus resistance. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 13 (2): 167-172.
V·zquez Rovere C, S Asurmendi and HE Hopp (2001) Transgenic resistance in potato plants expressing Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV) replicase sequences is RNA-mediated and suggests the involvement of post-transcriptional gene silencing. Archives of Virology 146 (7):1337-1353.
Maskin L, Gudesblat G, Moreno J, Carrari F, Frankel N, Sambade A, Rossi M and Iusem N (2001) Differential expression of the members of the Asr gene family in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Plant Science 161(4):739-746.
Tozzini AC, Martinez MC, Lucca MF, Vázquez Rovere C, Distefano AJ, del Vas M, Hopp HE (2000) Semi-quantitative detection of genetically modified grains based on CaMV 35S promoter amplification. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology http://www.ejb.org. August.
Rossi M, Carrari F, Cabrera-Ponce JL, Vazquez-Rovere C, Herrera-Estrella L, Gudesblat G and Iusem ND (1998) Analysis of an abscisic acid ( ABA )-responsive gene promoter belonging to the Asr gene family from tomato in homologous and heterologous systems. Molecular and General Genetics 258:1-8.
Ceriani MF, J Marcos, HE Hopp and R Beachy (1998) Simultaneous accumulation of multiple viral coat proteins from a TEV NIa based expression vector. Plant Molecular Biology 36: 239-248.
Rossi M, Lijavetzky D, Bernacchi D, Hopp HE and Lusem N (1996) Asr genes belong to a gene family comprising at least three closely linked loci on chromosome 4 in tomato. Mol Gen Genet. 252(4):489-92.
Feigelstock D, AC Tozzini and HE Hopp (1995) The coat protein sequence of a resistance-breaking strain of potato virus X isolated in Argentina . Virus Genes 10 (3): 289-292.
Tozzini AC, B Ek, ET Palva and HE Hopp (1994) Potato virus X coat protein: a glycoprotein. Virology 202: 651-658.
Tozzini AC, MF Ceriani, P Cramer, T Palva and HE Hopp (1994) Properties of a new resistance-breaking strain of potato virus X (PVX MS). J. Phytopatol. 141 (3): 241-248.
Del Vas M, MF Ceriani, A O'Connor and HE Hopp (1992) Agrobacterium mediated transformation of potato cultivars of local interest in Latin America using leaf explants. In: Proceedings of the First Workshop on Plant Transformation from the Plant Genetic Engineering Network BIOLAC/UNU. Editores: L.Herrera Estrella y R. Vallejos, United Nations University Press, Tokio, Japan.
Hopp HE, L Haim, F Bravo Almonacid, AI Arese, A Tozzini, MF Ceriani, MV Saladrigas, B ORMAN, R Celnik, M del Vas and AN Mentaberry (1991) Development and application of a non-radioactive nucleic acid hybridization system for the simultaneous detection of four potato pathogens. J. Virol. Meth. 31 (1): 11-30.
Saladrigas MV, MF Ceriani, A Tozzini, AI Arese and HE Hopp (1990) Potato gene Xi confers inoculum dependent resistance to potato virus X replication in protoplasts. Plant Cell Physiol. 31 (6): 749-755.
Tozzini A, MF Ceriani, MV Saladrigas and HE Hopp (1991) Extreme resistance to infection by potato virus X in genotypes of wild tuber-bearing Solanum species. Potato Research 34: 317-324.
Posdoctoral oportunity in Functional genomic approaches in tomato: introgressing exotic alleles to gain fruit quality. Contact Dr. Fernando Carrari
Student project work: Undergraduate students are welcome to apply for thesis and/or undergraduate student project work. The research groups in our institute carry out research in various areas, including plant biochemistry, applied chemistry, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. To learn about potential projects in any of these areas, contact Dr. Fernando Carrari.
| Natalia Almasia |  |
Postdoc |
| Sebastian Asurmendi | |
Group leader |
| Valeria Beracochea | |
Plant transformation technician |
| Ariel Bazzini | |
Postdoc |
| Teresa Cabrera | |
Plant transformation technician |
| Fernando Carrari | |
Group leader |
| Carla Coluccio-Leskow | |
undergraduate student |
| Mariana Conte | |
Lab technician |
| Guadalupe Domínguez | |
PhD student |
| Esteban Hopp | |
Head of department |
| Laura Kamenetzky | |
Associated Researcher |
| Mariana Gabriela López | |
Postdoc |
| Carlos Manacorda | |
PhD student |
| Agustin Montenegro | |
Greenhouse technician |
| Vanesa Nahirñak | |
PhD student |
| Valeria Peralta | |
Plant transformation technician |
| Leandro Quadrana | |
PhD student |
| Laura Ramos | |
lab Technician |
| Cecilia Rodriguez | PhD student | |
| Luciana Turlione | undergraduate student | |
| Cecilia Vazquez-Rovere | |
Group leader |
| Sofia Villanueva | undergraduate student | |
| Juan Ignacio Tevez | Greenhouse technician |
-amino-butyrate
(GABA) Shunt in Illuminated Tomato Leaves. Plant Physiology 145:
626-639.