Marta’s home page

Hi!

This is my web page. I use it to show a bit of what I do both at work and in my spare time.

About my job

I am currently working as a postdoc in Cris Kuhlemeier’s group, in Bern. The group studies how evolution works, and uses the model plant Petunia to investigate the topic. One of the questions we ask is: how many genes need to change (i.e. mutate) in one species in order for it to evolve into a new species? The group has been working hard on this question, especially by looking at phenotypic traits (for example flower colour) that strongly affect pollinator’s choice (and hence where the pollen will go, and who will the plant reproductive partner be). The group found that these types of phenotypic traits can be changed by one or a few mutations, and that these affect the choice of the pollinators (Sheehan et al. 2016, Esfeld et al., 2018).

In my projects I use bioinformatics to answer the group’s questions. I use next generation sequencing to produce genomic and transcriptomic datasets and analyse these in relation with the plant phenotypes. Finding relations between the phenotype measurements and the genomic data is a big part of my job.

One of the things that I like about this job is that I can explore these big datasets, and make stories out of the data. I typically plot and visualise the data in many different ways, trying to highlight trends and relations previously unknown.

About myself

I am Italian, and some of the typical stereotypes find some grounds in me. Especially those revolving around food. I like cooking and I enjoy good food. Every time I get a new job and move to a different place, I spread my recipes among the colleagues (disclaimer: they are not my recipes in the sense that I created them. They are traditional italian recipes, or family recipes or recipes from the website of Sonia Peronaci https://www.soniaperonaci.it/).

When the weather is good I like to get out of my place for a hike, be it winter or summer. I take photos but I am far from being a professional. I sometimes manage to get photos I enjoy looking at, and that’s enough for me.

In my spare time I also like to assemble and disassemble things. You can find me fixing my bike, or assembling a Raspberry Pi sound system to listen to my favourite web radio.

References

Esfeld, Korinna, Andrea E. Berardi, Michel Moser, Eligio Bossolini, Loreta Freitas, and Cris Kuhlemeier. 2018. ‘Pseudogenization and Resurrection of a Speciation Gene’. Current Biology 28 (23): 3776-3786.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.019.

Sheehan, Hester, Michel Moser, Ulrich Klahre, Korinna Esfeld, Alexandre Dell’Olivo, Therese Mandel, Sabine Metzger, Michiel Vandenbussche, Loreta Freitas, and Cris Kuhlemeier. 2016. ‘MYB-FL Controls Gain and Loss of Floral UV Absorbance, a Key Trait Affecting Pollinator Preference and Reproductive Isolation’. Nature Genetics 48 (2): 159–66. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3462.