Juan J. Pierella Karlusich
Juan J. Pierella Karlusich
FFEM Post-doctoral researcher
Phone : (33 (0) 144 32 35 28
Fax : (33) (0) 144 32 39 35
E-mail : pierella chez biologie.ens.fr
Research
I am particularly interest in how the diverse phototrophs have been able to colonize a huge variety of habitats, focusing in the adaptation/acclimation at the level of the photosynthetic machinery and redox metabolism.
During my PhD in Argentina (IBR-CONICET, UNR) and in part in Germany (IPK-Gatersleben), I studied the role of chloroplast redox status in the modulation of genome-wide responses of plants towards drought and pathogens. In addition, I worked with the different tactics that plants, algae and cyanobacteria have evolved to cope with iron deficiency and other environmental hardships.
After extending my research in my former lab with a posdoctoral stay, I then moved to my current postdoctoral position through a FFEM fellowship. Here, I am using the remarkable resources that Tara Oceans expedition obtained by sampling all major oceanic regions, including meta-omics, high throughput imaging and environmental parameters. My main aim is to get insights into the phytoplankton adaptation/acclimation towards the environment, which provides a framework for understanding the resilience of phytoplankton communities in a changing ocean.
In addition to research, I had a teaching position in Universidad de Rosario, Argentina, and I currently dictate a micromodule in microbial meta-omics to L3/M1 students in the Biology Department of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris. I also like popular science and I have written science articles for the general public.
Selected publications
• Pierella Karlusich JJ, Ibarbaltz F, Bowler C (2020) Phytoplankton in the Tara Ocean. Annual Review of Marine Science 12 : 18.1–18.33.
• Busseni G, Rocha FJV, Amato A, Pelletier E, Pierella Karlusich JJ, (...), Caputi L, Iudicone D (2019) Meta-omics reveals genetic flexibility of diatom nitrogen transporters in response to environmental changes. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 36 : 2522-2535.
• Caputi L, Carradec Q, Eveillard D, Kirilovsky A, Pelletier E, Pierella Karlusich JJ, (..), Bowler C, Iudicone D (2019) Community-Level Responses to Iron Availability in Open Ocean Planktonic Ecosystems. Global Biogeochemical Cycles (doi:10.1029/2018GB006022).
• Pierella Karlusich JJ, Zurbriggen MD, Shahinnia F, Sonnewald S, Sonnewald U, Hosseini SA, Hajirezaei MR, Carrillo N (2017) Chloroplast redox status modulates genome-wide plant responses during the non-host interaction of tobacco with the hemibiotrophic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria. Frontiers in Plant Science 8 : 1158.
• Pierella Karlusich JJ, Carrillo N (2017) Evolution of the acceptor side of photosystem I : ferredoxin, flavodoxin, and ferredoxin-NADP+ oxidoreductase. Photosynthesis Research. doi : 10.1007/s11120-017-0338-2
• Pierella Karlusich JJ, Ceccoli RD, Graña M, Romero H, Carrillo N (2015) Environmental selection pressures related to iron utilization are involved in the loss of the flavodoxin gene from the plant genome. Genome Biology and Evolution 7 : 750-767.
• Pierella Karlusich JJ, Lodeyro AF, Carrillo N (2014) The long goodbye : the rise and fall of flavodoxin during plant evolution. Journal of Experimental Botany 65 : 5161-5178.
• Lodeyro AF, Ceccoli RD, Pierella Karlusich JJ, Carrillo N (2012) The importance of flavodoxin for environmental stress tolerance in photosynthetic microorganisms and transgenic plants. Mechanism, evolution and biotechnological potential. FEBS letters586 : 2917-2924.
