Miriam Oses-Ruiz

Research Fellow
Nick Talbot Group

My interest in Plant Pathology started during my Agricultural Engineering studies at Universidad Pública de Navarra in Spain. I then decided to specialize more and I moved to Wageningen University (The Netherlands) where I completed my master’s degree in Plant Pathology and Entomology. During my master’s degree I investigated the mode of action of NEP proteins in the grey mould fungus Botrytis cinerea in the laboratory of Dr. Jan van Kan. As part of my intership I joined the laboratory of Prof. Sophien Kamoun at TSL where I focused in the identification of plant targets and function characterization of RxLR cytoplasmic effectors of the oomycete Phytophtora infestans. In 2010 I joined Professor Nick Talbot’s research group to be part of a Marie Curie Initial Training Network program called ARIADNE and carry out my PhD. The main objective of ARIADNE was to identify and characterize conserved and specific fungal virulence genes as common antifungal targets, and specifically, we investigated the role of MAP kinase signalling pathways in a diverse group of fungi. I used a Comparative Transcriptomic approach using RNA-seq to define a hierarchical transcriptional model regulating appressorium morphogenesis and infection in Magnaporthe oryzae.

My main interest is being to understand cellular developmental processes and morphogenesis associated with appressorium formation in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. My main focus is to understand how cell cycle progression controls appressorium development and what are the cell cycle check points required for appressorium morphogenesis and invasive growth. I am also interested and involved in understanding the mechanism of the cell-to-cell movement during plant invasion, in cell surface perception and in how the homebox transcription factor Hox7 controls morphogenesis in Magnaporthe oryzae.