Integrative Systems Biology of microorganisms of agricultural interest

The main aim of my research is understanding molecular mechanisms of functional innovation and complexity. We are interested in the evolutionary trajectories to biological innovations, being driven by either genomic or regulatory changes. This knowledge is relevant to the understanding of species diversification and emergence of biological complexity, but also it provide cornerstones to biotechnological (compound production under different biotic and abiotic stresses) and biomedical issues (oxidative stress, longevity, ...). Our approach is based on the characterisation and use of molecular mutational buffering mechanisms (chaperones and gene/genome duplications) that provide mutational robustness to the system. To achieve it, we use Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli as model organisms.