Dr. María José Pozo
International collaborator
Dr. María J. Pozo started her research career in pioneer labs in the field of beneficial microbes and plant protection. She did her PhD thesis in the group of Mycorrhiza at the EEZ established by Prof. J.M. Barea more than 40 years ago, one of the pioneer groups on mycorrhiza in Europe with large experience on ecology, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnological applications of mycorrhizas. Then, she continued her scientific training in Functional Genomics and Biocontrol of plant pathogens by the antagonistic fungus Trichoderma virens as a post doc Texas A&M University at Prof. Kenerley´s lab. Later she was a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Prof. Pieterse´s lab at Utrecht University, the pioneer group on induced resistance by beneficials, where she studied the molecular mechanisms regulating Induced Resistance by rhizobacteria in Arabidopsis. In 2005 she returned to Spain and started the research line of Induced Resistance by mycorrhizas, as an independent researcher, funded by the Ramon y Cajal program (Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, 2005) and a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant from the EU. She is Tenured Scientist at CSIC since 2007, and has been promoted to Scientific Researcher in 2018. Her research focuses on the effects of beneficial soil microbes, especially mycorrhiza, on plant tolerance to stresses, paying special attention to the regulation of plant immunity and the impact on above- and below-ground interactions with pathogens and insect pests. This research line has been continuously funded by the Spanish National R&D research program though different projects since 2006 (see below) and she has participated in other projects related to plant defense regulation and bioprotection of crops with national and international collaborators. She is also involved in different activities related to transfer of knowledge, as she has consultancy and technical support contracts with several biotech companies (Biofungitek S.L, Koppert RV Keygene R.V and Kimitec. S.L.). The research team is currently composed by 2 Tenured Scientists (Maria J Pozo and Juan Antonio López Ráez), 4 PhD students, a permanent technician, a contracted technician and 3 visiting scientists. The group is strongly involved in the formation of young scientific researchers, continuously hosting young researchers from multiple countries, with 14 master thesis supervised. She has supervised 4 PhD Thesis, 3 of them awarded with the international mention, and co-supervised 2 international thesis. She is currently supervising 4 other thesis. She also carries out postgraduate teaching activities as professor at the masters by the University of Granada ‘Agricultural Biology and Aquaculture’ and ‘Advances in Microbiology’ and in the post-graduate Course ‘Plant Biology and Soil Sciences’, organized by CSIC/UGR. She has a notable track of publications, with most publications in the first decile or quartile in their area, H index= 33, with a total of 5490 cites in 3949 documents according to Scopus (April 2019). She has a wide network of national and international collaborators, and has participated in multiple research proposals with teams from other countries including Chile, Argentina and within the EU H2020 framework, as the MIRA ITN-Marie Curie Reseach Network, where she is member of the steering committee, PI at CSIC, coordinator of a work package and supervisor of 2 PhD. She has been also part of the steering committee and work package leader of the COST ACTION FA1405 on plant-microbe-insect interactions (2015-2019), with 28 participating countries.
Research lines
- Agricultural sciences
- Arbuscular mycorrhizas
- Beneficial microorganisms
- Biochemistry and plant molecular biology
- Crop protection
- Induced resistance
- Phytohormones
- Phytopathology
- Plant defense
- Soil microbiology
- Symbiosis
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