Born in Bilbao, Soraya started Biology studies in the Basque Country University but moved to Madrid to follow the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry specialty. She obtained her BSc at Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in 1989. For her PhD studies she joined Dr. Morata's laboratory at the CBM where she performed research on Drosophila Developmental Genetics with a Basque Predoctoral fellowship and got the PhD in 1993 at UAM. For her postdoctoral research she moved from flies to flowers by joining Dr. Yanofsky's laboratory at the University of California at San Diego. There she performed Developmental Biology on Arabidopsis with fellowships from the Spanish MEC and from the HFSPO. In 2001 she got a "Ramón y Cajal" contract at INIA in Madrid to establish her own line of research in Flower Development. In 2003 she joined ICREA and moved to Barcelona. Along the years she has also performed stays at UNAM, Mexico; WUR, Netherlands; Max Planck, Germany and NYU and NYBG, USA.
Research interests
The connection among crop production, climate change, and demographic growth is progressively uncovering a profound impact in the food security throughout the world. Because plants are sessile organisms, they maximize their chances to survive adversities by reprogramming their development for adaptation to environmental changes. Under this scenario, integrative approaches to understand the specific role of essential genetic regulatory networks in plants are urgently needed. RAV genes configure a potential hub to modulate plant development in response to adverse environmental conditions, which are major limiting factors for plant survival, adaptation, and crop production. Therefore, we perform a comprehensive functional study of RAV genes along the green tree of life. We analyze their gene regulatory networks in abiotic stress responses and aim to decipher RAV gene evolution and function acquisition unravelling their roles from non-flowering plants to flowering plants.
Selected publications
– Dejahang A, Maghsoudi N, Mousavi A, Farsad-Akhtar N, Matias-Hernandez L, Pelaz S, Flota K & Mahna N 2023, ‘TEMPRANILLO homologs in apple regulate flowering time in the woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca‘, Scientific Reports, 13, 1.
– Suárez-Baron H, Alzate JF, Ambrose BA, Pelaz S, González F & Pabón-Mora N 2023, ‘Comparative morphoanatomy and transcriptomic analyses reveal key factors controlling floral trichome development in Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae)‘, Journal Of Experimental Botany, .
Selected research activities
Managerial Activities
- CRAG Deputy Director.
- Head of the Molecular Genetics Department.
Funded Projects (PI)
- Evolution of RAV genes function in responses to abiotic stress in flowering and non-flowering plants. MICN.
- Arabidopsis Developmental Genomics. SGR. AGAUR.
- GI-RAV-SVP Gene Regulatory Network in abiotic stress tolerance in the Brassicaceae family. M2C&C2M call from CRAG Severo Ochoa Program.
Master Thesis
- Nikoleta Gavala. Evolutionary approach of interactions between RAV and other flowering proteins. Master on Plant Biology, Genomics and Biotechnology. UAB.
Editorial Board
- Handling Editor of Physiologia Plantarum.
- Editor of the Plantarum Special Issue “Roles of Volatiles and Colors in Eco-Environments”.
- Academic Editor of Peer J.
Congresses Organization
- Member of the Organizing Committee of the “At the forefront of Plant research conference”. Barcelona, Spain.
- Coordinator of the overlapping “At the forefront of Plant research” and “Genomics-assisted breeding for boosting crop and livestock improvement” international conferences. Barcelona, Spain.
Invited Talks
- Session speaker in the Iberian Plant Biology meeting. Evolutionary role of RAV genes in development and adaptive growth. Braga, Portugal.
- INUPRAG symposium. Unexpected NGATHA genes in gymnosperms. Umea, Sweden.
Outreach Activities
- 24th Dia de la Ciència a las Escoles. Las plantas tienen pelos, ojos y aprenden a leer! IES. Sant Feliu de Codines, Barcelona.