Rita Seabra

Ana Rita Seabra is a postdoctoral researcher in the Plant Nitrogen group. Rita participates in different projects that aim to understand fundamental aspects of nitrogen metabolism in plants, particularly in legumes, which are able to form symbiotic associations with soil bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen, and produce protein-rich seeds. Understanding nitrogen metabolism in legumes is an important biological question as human population must become less dependent on animals for protein-intake and rely more on natural legume-associated nitrogen fixation to reduce the negative impact of excessive chemical fertilization in agricultural systems. Her goal is to elucidate the function of key genes involved in nitrogen metabolism and assist on innovative plant breeding technologies that promote sustainable agricultural practices. She employs molecular and cell biology, biochemistry and biotechnology methodologies.

Rita completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry (applied biochemistry) in 2004 and received her Ph.D. degree in biology in 2012, both from the University of Porto. For her PhD studies, Rita investigated the function and regulation of the glutamine synthetase (GS) isoenzyme family in Medicago truncatula with Helena Carvalho at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC-Porto). She then joined the lab of Eric Kemen at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ-Cologne) for her first Post-Doc to study how proteins of the HSP90 family influence the adaptation of obligate plant parasites to new hosts. Rita returned to Portugal in 2014 to IBMC where she continued her work on GS regulation with focus on protein post-translation modifications. She is since March 2017 a post-doctoral research fellow at CIBIO-InBIO.