Advisory Board and Editors Plant Physiology
Carmen Arena
Carmen Arena is Associate Professor in Ecology at the Department of Biology of the University of Naples Federico II. She conducts researches in the ecological disciplines, dealing with studies concerning photosynthesis and morpho-functional adaptation strategies of higher plants and macroalgae in response to mono and multiple stresses in natural and controlled environments, with applications in ecological, biotechnological and agronomic field.
The research activity holds three main issues:
1) Regulation of the photosynthetic process in higher plants and macroalgae in response to ecological factors in the context of environmental change.
2) Study of plant growth in an extra-terrestrial environment.
3) Plant-soil interactions in natural and anthropized ecosystems.
These researches include a) the eco-physiological response of crop species to light quality; (b) the morpho-functional strategies of plant in phytoremediation studies (c)) the relationship between soil pollution, edaphic communities and photosynthesis in higher plants used in biomonitoring studies.
C. Arena is author of 130 publications peer-reviewed ISI-WoS/Scopus, and participated to more than 150 National and International congresses and workshops, most of them as speaker and invited speaker.
Christophe Hano
Dr. Christophe Hano, completed his PhD in 2005 in Plant Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and is Associate Professor at the University of Orleans with research activities the ICOA Lab (UMR7311 CNRS). His research career has focused on applied plant metabolism, plant biotechnology and green (bio)chemistry.
Currently, he is developing research projects aimed at studying plant secondary/specialized metabolism to lead to the development of natural products with interests in the fields of pharmacology and/or cosmetics. In particular, his research focuses on the green extraction (NaDES) and analytical methods applied to plant polyphenols, elucidation of their biosynthetic patways and their exploitation by metabolic engineering approaches.
Imren Kutlu
Dr. Imren Kutlu received her Ph.D. in quantitative genetics from Eskisehir Osmangazi University of Eskisehir- Turkey, in 2012. She worked as a research assistant in the Agricultural Faculty in Eskisehir Osmangazi University–Turkey between 2007-2019. Following this, Dr. Kutlu became Associate Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Agricultural Faculty, Field Crops Department.
During her Ph.D. she was skilled with quantitative genetics of cereals crops and applying in breeding of cereal yield and quality. In addition, she studied about agronomical techniques of cereals and legumes cultivation. In her postdoctoral studies, she focused on molecular genetics techniques, which helped her study molecular breeding of cereals crops, particularly for abiotic stress tolerance.
Since 2019. Dr. Kutlu has been researching plant molecular genetics, breeding for cereals crops under the different abiotic stress and supervising graduate/undergraduate researchers.
Generally, her research interests focus on the expression of abiotic stress-responsive genes and proteins, physiological and molecular mechanisms of the abiotic stress response, and tolerance. She also studies the effects of organic and inorganic molecules required for plants to coordinate stress responses under various abiotic stresses.
Efi Levizou
Associate Professor in Plant Physiology at the Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece. My research interests lie in the field of Plant Stress Physiology and I’m particularly interested in studying how plants cope with degraded irrigation water and soils. Focus is given on the effects of cyanotoxins-rich irrigation water on plant function as well as on how enhanced levels of potentially harmful trace elements in soil affect plant performance, in the phytoremediation context. Recent research projects include the study of crop function and the identification of possible stress factors in aquaponics production systems.
Alastair J Potts
I am interested in many aspects of South African œcology, including palaeovegetation distributions, plant phylogeography, drivers of biome boundaries and Albany Subtropical Thicket œcology (e.g. physiology, seed dispersal and restoration). I also spend time exploring the interface between phylogenetic trees and networks, as evolution is often poorly described using a bifurcating tree.
Humaira Yasmin
Dr Humaira Yasmin is tenured Associate professor (TTS) within the Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Her research interests include plant-microbe interactions, plant stress physiology, biofertilizers technology, soil microbiology, crop pathology, plant protection, plant biochemistry and molecular biology, medicinal plants, environmental microbiology, and agricultural nanotechnology. Dr Yasmin's research focuses on understanding the detailed biochemical mechanisms adapted by crops when exposed to biotic (fungal/ bacterial) pathogens, abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, heavy metals and heat). She is also investigating various eco-friendly and economic solutions to reduce the adverse impacts of environmental stresses on economically important crops. The techniques studied include isolation, characterization and mode of action of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Green synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles from medicinal plants and their application in agriculture to alleviate different stresses. Application of growth regulators (hormones (GA, ABA, SA, BS etc.), chelators (Oxalic acid, mellic acid etc.) and other chemical compounds to increase plant protection. Moreover, synergistic effects of the above mentioned solutions are also under consideration.