Cristina

Ferrandiz Maestre

Telephone: +34 963 877 892
Investigadora en Plantilla
Profesora de Investigación CSIC
ResearcherID: E-6280-2015

Biography

Cristina Ferrandiz leads the Evolution and Development of Carpels and Fruits lab at the Instituto de Biología Molecular and Celular de Plantas (IBMCP) in Valencia, Spain, since 2002. She obtained a PhD in Biology working in MADS box genes in pea under Jose Pio Beltrán’s supervision at IBMCP in 1996. Then she did 4 years postdoctoral work with Marty Yanofsky at UCSanDiego, where she worked on different aspects of reproductive developmental biology in Arabidopsis, and two additional years back in Spain at UPM in Madrid and UMH in Alicante before she got her current position. One of the main lines of her research is to understand how fruit patterning is established, and what is the molecular basis of the morphological and functional diversity found in Nature, working in the characterization of the main regulatory networks that drive tissue formation and how they have evolved to adapt to different seed dispersal strategies. More recently, she has also become interested in the study of global proliferative arrest, a general phenomenon that controls life-span in monocarpic plants, and defined a genetic network that regulates the maintenance of stem cells in the meristems and thus the duration and amount of fruit production before plant senescence and death. This research has translated into biotechnological tools that greatly improve yield in different crop species such as Brassicaceae or legumes.

Featured Posts

  1. V. Balanzà, I. Martínez-Fernández, S. Sato, M. Yanofsky, K. Kaufmann, G. Angenent, M. Bemer, C. Ferrándiz.(2018). Genetic control of meristem arrest and life span in Arabidopsis by a FRUITFULL-APETALA2 pathway. Nature Comms 9:565
  2. C.Moreau, J.. Hofer, M. Eléouët, A. Sinjushin, M. Ambrose, K. Skøt, T. Blackmore, M. Swain, M. Hegarty, V. Balanzà, C. Ferrándiz, T.H.N. Ellis. (2018) Identification of Stipules reduced, a leaf morphology gene in pea (Pisum sativum). New Phytologist 220:288-299
  3. D. Wu, W.Liang, W. Zhu, M. Chen, C. Ferrandiz,R. Burton, L. Dreni, D. Zhang. (2018) Loss of LOFSEP transcription factor function converts spikelet to leaf-like structures in rice. Plant Physiology 176:1646.64.
  4. M. Bemer, H. van Mourik, J. Muiño, C. Ferrándiz, K. Kaufmann, G. Angenent. (2017). FRUITFULL controls SAUR10 expression and regulates Arabidopsis growth and architecture.  Journal of Experimental Botany doi:10.1093/jxb/erx184.
  5. Africa Gomariz-Fernández, Verónica Sánchez-Gerschon, Chloé Fourquin, Cristina Ferrándiz. (2017) The role of SHI/STY/SRS genes in organ growth and carpel development is conserved in the distant eudicot species Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana bentamiana. Frontiers in Plant Science 8:814
  6. Patricia Ballester, Cristina Ferrandiz (2017) Shattering fruits: Variations on a dehiscent theme. Curr. Op. Plant Biology 35:68-75
  7. P Ballester, M Navarrete-Gómez, P Carbonero, L Oñate-Sánchez, Cristina Ferrándiz (2015) Leaf expansion is controled by a TCP-NGA regulatory module likely conserved in distantly related species. Physiol Plantarum doi: 10.1111/ppl.12329
  8. C Fourquin, C Ferrándiz (2014) The essential role of NGATHA genes in style and stigma specification is widely conserved across eudicots. New Phytol 202:1001-13.
  9. V Balanzà, I Martínez-Fernández, C Ferrándiz (2014) Sequential action of FUL as modulator of the activity of the floral regulators SVP and SOC1. J. Exp Botany 65:1193-203.
  10. I Martínez-Fernández, S Sanchís, N Marini, V Balanzá, P Ballester, M Navarrete-Gómez, A Oliveira, L Colombo, Cristina Ferrándiz (2014) The effect of NGATHA altered activity on auxin signaling pathways within the Arabidopsis gynoecium. Frontiers in Plant Science 5:210. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00210.
  11. C Fourquin, C del Cerro, F Victoria, A Vialette-Guiraud, A de Oliveira, Cristina Ferrándiz. (2013) A change in SHP protein lies at the origin of a fruit morphological novelty and a new strategy for seed dispersal in Medicago genus. Plant Physiol 192:907-917.
  12. C Fourquin, Cristina Ferrándiz. (2012) Funtional analyses of AGAMOUS family members in Nicotiana benthamiana reveal a new evolutionary framework for the early and late roles of C-function genes in eudicots. Plant Journal. 71: 990-1001.
  13. A Berbel*; C Ferrándiz*(equal contribution); V Hecht; M Dalmais; OS Lund; FC Sussmilch; SA Taylor; A Bendahmane; THN Ellis; JP Beltrán; JL Weller; F Madueño. (2012) VEGETATIVE1 Controls Development of the Compound Inflorescence in Pea. Nature Communications 3:797. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1801
  14. T Girin, T Paicu, P Stephenson, S Fuentes, E Körner, M O’Brien, K Sorefan, TA Wood, V Balanzá, C Ferrándiz, DR Smyth, and L Østergaard (2011) INDEHISCENT and SPATULA interact to specify carpel and valve margin tissue and thus promote seed dispersal in Arabidopsis Plant Cell 23 : 3641-3653
  15. M Trigueros, M Navarrete-Gómez, S Sato, S Christensen, S Pelaz, D Weigel, M Yanofsky, Cristina Ferrándiz. (2009) The NGATHA genes direct style development in the Arabidopsis gynoecium. Plant Cell 21: 1394-1400.