Ana Gonçalves Leite de Assunção
Auxiliary Researcher
The focus of my research group is the study of the micronutrient zinc (Zn) deficiency response in plants and its transcriptional regulation, anchored at the F-bZIP transcription factors. We study the molecular mechanisms underlying the Arabidopsis F-bZIP regulatory network, including: i) the Zn-sensor function of F-bZIP transcription factors, ii) the role of F-bZIP target genes in the Zn deficiency response, and iii) modulation of F-bZIP transcription factor’s activity, as molecular switches, to impact plant Zn accumulation and Zn use-efficiency traits. Our work includes exploring the evolutionarily conserved F-bZIP regulatory network of land plants, by analysing F-bZIP homolog’s regulatory network in different model crop species (rice, tomato and legume).
Ana Assuncao is an associate professor at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, and a researcher at PLANTBIO, CIBIO-InBIO.