Andrea Genre.

Abstract

New PhytologistVolume 231, Issue 4 p. 1316-1317 ProfileFree Access Andrea Genre First published: 15 July 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17424AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat What inspired your interest in plant science? I believe my first conscious inspiration came from my early university studies. Botany lessons opened my mind to an unexpectedly diverse and – to a young student – alien world, populated with creatures that I had mostly considered as part of the landscape, but which turned out to have surprisingly complex life cycles, interactions and metabolic capabilities. Plant science lessons took place in the premises of the botanical garden, in a detached, calm atmosphere. At the time, the orto botanico in Turin was literally a secret garden, closed to the public and apparently miles away from the nearby traffic of the city and the crowded corridors of the university main buildings. All that undoubtedly charmed me and motivated my application for an experimental thesis in plant science. Another inspiring moment happened while I was studying for my mycology exam. I had taken a few days off, which I spent at my grandparents' house in the Alps, to fully focus on study. It was late spring, and as I walked in the woods, reading about mycorrhizas in my class notes, I walked among several young birch saplings. Abruptly, I grasped one plant and pulled it out of the soft ground, and there they were: short, club-shaped root tips precisely matching the description of ectomycorrhizas in my notes. That ordinary event provided revealing evidence to my study-excited mind, somehow reinforcing my trust in science books as well as my interest in symbioses. Why did you decide to pursue a career in research? It happened progressively and I place the blame on the fascinating complexity of plant symbiotic interactions as much as on my passion for visual experiences. Following my university degree, I had obtained a position as a research assistant where I was in charge of a recently acquired confocal microscope and struggling to obtain acceptable 3D images of the plant cytoskeleton in mycorrhizal interactions using immunofluorescence. That challenging experience transported me inside the miniature world of a plant cell, whose panoramas I enjoyed so much that I never wanted to leave. The rest of my career came as a consequence: the application for a PhD, then for a researcher and lastly an associate professor position, always keeping confocal microscopy and live cell imaging as my central focus. What motivates you on a day-to-day basis? The biology of mycorrhizal interactions is full of continuous surprises. So often our working hypotheses have been overturned by evidence, and those were invariably the ground-breaking observations that opened novel perspectives, many of which we are still pursuing. Is there anyone that you consider to be a role model? I would not say that I have actively searched for inspiration in one specific person, but I am certainly doing my best to learn from everyone. This applies to many aspects: understanding what is wrong in a boring presentation at a meeting and recognizing (and hopefully correcting!) the same mistakes in my own slides; absorbing the principles of professional ethics and endeavouring to pass them on to my students; watching how group leaders deal with their everyday struggles and taking mental notes of dos and don’ts. I was lucky to start my career in one of the most renowned groups for the study of mycorrhizas, under the guidance of Paola Bonfante: a model of passion for science and enthusiastic restlessness, and a constant source of insights and long-term visions that still keep us going. I spent a crucial period of my PhD in Toulouse, in the research team led by David Barker. His rigorous reasoning mixed with a sincere passion for knowledge motivated the whole group, and profoundly and permanently influenced me. Co-authoring several papers with David also gave me insider access to scientific writing by a native English speaker with a talent for clarity, a field where my learning curve will never stop rising. What are your favourite New Phytologist papers of recent years, and why? I very much enjoy the depth of New Phytologist reviews, but I also appreciate the freshness of Letters and Viewpoint articles. If I am asked to mention individual papers from recent issues of New Phytologist, an article that immediately comes to my mind is Harwood et␣al. (2020). Their 3D reconstructions of mesophyll cells are iconic and I now use this paper to show my cell biology students how most plant cell schemes found in textbooks can be misleading. Another paper that I frequently present to my students is the research review by Gorshkova et␣al. (2018) on contractile tertiary walls, an excellent example of surprising plant features that have been hiding in plain sight for a long time. Coming to topics that are closer to my own field of research, the paper by Bravo et␣al. (2017) led the way to our understanding of fatty acid auxotrophy in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, a breakthrough in the general frame of plant–fungus mutualism that is well presented in the Tansley review by Wipf et␣al. (2019), and led to the first successful attempts of axenic cultivation of AM fungi in lipid-enriched media, thoroughly commented on in the Viewpoint by Rillig et␣al. (2020). My interest in fungal signalling molecules and their perception by AM host plants was excited by the paper by Huang et␣al. (2020) on natural variation of OsCERK1 receptors in wild rice varieties and their consequently diverse efficiency in symbiosis development. Back to the continuous surprises of mycorrhizal interactions, Chaudhary et␣al. (2020) depicted a convincing view of aerial dispersal of AM fungi, a possibility that appeared unlikely just a few years ago. Coming to the most recent issues, I believe the article by Wang et␣al. (2021), which characterizes one of the several secreted effectors encoded in the Rhizophagus irregularis genome, marks the opening of a promising new area of exploration, driven by the massive amount of information derived from genomic analyses. What is your favourite plant, and why? I think my original fascination for plants as surprising organisms is the reason why I particularly love unusual plants: oddly shaped succulents populate the windowsills in my home (Fig. 1), and ancient survivors of plant evolution, such as Cycas, always catch my eye in gardens. It is said that the best moment to plant a tree is 20 years ago, which happens to be exactly when I planted a Ginkgo biloba, another ‘living fossil’ in the plant kingdom and a monumental AM host of which I am particularly fond. Fig. 1Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Huernia zebrina in bloom. Box Andrea Genre obtained his PhD in Fungal Biology and Biotechnology in 2006 in the group of Paola Bonfante at the University of Turin (Italy), where he is currently carrying out his teaching and research as an Associate Professor. His main interest is in plant cell biology of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) interactions and during his early studies he combined live cell confocal imaging and electron microscopy to describe – in collaboration with the group led by David Barker (LIPM CNRS-INRAE, Toulouse, France) – a novel plant cell apparatus that anticipates the penetration of AM fungi in the lumen of root epidermal and cortical cells. In 2012 Andrea had the opportunity to start his own group and projects, which have investigated the similarities between such pre-penetration responses and cell division, outlining possible evolutionary/developmental connections. These studies were more recently advanced with the characterization of cell cycle reactivation during early AM colonization, in advance of arbuscule accommodation. Converging interests with the LIPM group also generated a series of studies that characterized short-chain chitin oligosaccharides as major signalling molecules of AM fungi. Andrea’s group currently focuses on their potential application as symbiosis promoters in agriculture. Andrea is an Associate Editor of New Phytologist and joined the Board in 2020. For more information on Andrea, visit https://dbiosen.campusnet.unito.it/do/docenti.pl/Show?_id=agenre, or contact him at andrea.genre@unito.it ORCID: Andrea Genre https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5029-6194 References Bravo A, Brands M, Wewer V, Dörmann P, Harrison MJ. 2017. Arbuscular mycorrhiza-specific enzymes FatM and RAM2 fine-tune lipid biosynthesis to promote development of arbuscular mycorrhiza. New Phytologist 214: 1631– 1645. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Chaudhary VB, Nolimal S, Sosa-Hernández MA, Egan C, Kastens J. 2020. Trait-based aerial dispersal of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. New Phytologist 228: 238– 252. Wiley Online LibraryCASWeb of Science®Google Scholar Gorshkova T, Chernova T, Mokshina N, Ageeva M, Mikshina P. 2018. Plant ‘muscles’: fibers with a tertiary cell wall. New Phytologist 218: 66– 72. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Harwood R, Goodman E, Gudmundsdottir M, Huynh M, Musulin Q, Song M, Barbour MM. 2020. Cell and chloroplast anatomical features are poorly estimated from 2D cross-sections. New Phytologist 225: 2567– 2578. Wiley Online LibraryPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Huang R, Li Z, Mao C, Zhang H, Sun Z, Li H, Huang C, Feng Y, Shen X, Bucher M et␣al. 2020. Natural variation at OsCERK1 regulates arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in rice. New Phytologist 225: 1762– 1776. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Rillig MC, Aguilar-Trigueros CA, Anderson IC, Antonovics J, Ballhausen M-B, Bergmann J, Bielcik M, Chaudhary VB, Deveautour C, Grünfeld L et␣al. 2020. Myristate and the ecology of AM fungi: significance, opportunities, applications and challenges. New Phytologist 227: 1610– 1614. Wiley Online LibraryPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Wang P, Jiang H, Boeren S, Dings H, Kulikova O, Bisseling T, Limpens E. 2021. A nuclear-targeted effector of Rhizophagus irregularisinterferes with histone 2B mono-ubiquitination to promote arbuscular mycorrhisation. New Phytologist 230: 1142– 1155. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Wipf D, Krajinski F, van Tuinen D, Recorbet G, Courty P-E. 2019. Trading on the arbuscular mycorrhiza market: from arbuscules to common mycorrhizal networks. New Phytologist 223: 1127– 1142. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Volume231, Issue4August 2021Pages 1316-1317 FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation