ana

I received my Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from University of São Paulo, Brazil, where I was also awarded my Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding. My Ph.D. research involved altering the composition of cell wall polysaccharides in transgenic tobacco plants by modulating the expression of genes encoding nucleotide sugar interconversion enzymes. I had the chance to develop part of those studies in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology of Purdue University, under the supervision of Dr. Nick Carpita which was an excellent experience.

The current position as postdoctoral research associate at Dr. Rose’s lab has been an outstanding opportunity to continue pursuing my interests in plant cell walls. My main project involves the investigation of the physiological roles and mechanisms of action of a structural class of plant glycosyl hydrolase family 9 (GH9), called class C; members of which have an atypical carbohydrate binding module (CBM) at the C-terminus. Our lab previously demonstrated that the C-terminal module of a tomato GH9C (Catala & Bennett, 1998) binds to crystalline cellulose, which is the first such example in plants (Urbanowicz et al., 2007). My studies focus on identifying differences in cell wall polysaccharides composition, structure, and morphology between wild type and transgenic Arabidopsis plants with altered expression of GH9C. A more complete understanding of the effects of this modular GH9 enzyme on plant cell wall architecture should help suggesst strategies to generate plants with walls that are more susceptible to bioconversion.

Catalá C. and Bennett AB. (1998) Cloning and sequence analysis of Tomcel8; a new plant endo-ß-D-1,4-glucanase gene, encoding a protein with a putative carbohydrate binding domain (Accession No. AF098292). PlantPhysiol. 118:1535.

Urbanowicz B.R., Catalá C., Irwin D., Wilson D.B., Ripoll D.R., Rose J.K.C. (2007) A tomato endo-b-1,4-glucanase, SlCel9C1, represents a distinct subclass with a new family of carbohydrate binding modules (CBM49). J. Biol. Chem. 282, 12066-12074.