RB (Rumyana) Karlova, PhD

My career:

My research interest was always focused on plants, how they respond to external and internal stimuli and how plants can change and reprogram their development. My PhD thesis research was focused on understanding the mechanism of brassinosteroid signal transduction pathways and the process of reprogramming of somatic plat cells to a totipotent state. Since then I have always been interested in the regulation of plant developmental processes and I realize that I can transfer my experience and knowledge from a model species Arabidopsis to the model crop species Tomato, I joined the lab of prof. Gerco Angenent as a post-doctoral fellow. During my post-doctorate I obtained a NWO-VENI grant and we identified new important regulators of tomato fruit ripening, SlAP2a and FUL1/FUL2 transcription factors. Furthermore, I was the first to set up the protocol for degradome (PARE) analysis on a genome-wide scale in tomato and demonstrated that miRNAs are important regulators of tomato fruit development. In my second Post-doc project I was investigating the ability of glycosyltransferases to glycosylate different plant hormones and their function in plants as detoxifying components involved in plant development and defence. In my ERA-NET SusCrop grant, “Resilience to salinity in tomato” I aimed to understand how tomato plants respond to salinity and which gene regulatory networks regulate these responses at molecular and cellular level. In this project the role and importance of root architecture, in abiotic stress resilience and the interaction of plant roots with soil microbial communities and other organic biostimulants will be investigated. Novel developments in biostimulants show that it is possible to affect root functioning and resilience towards abiotic stress such as salt and drought. However, despite the potential for agriculture, there is very limited knowledge on the mechanisms through which biostimulants act. In this project the role of different biostimulants on tomato salinity resilience will be investigated. 

My current research (Microp project) aims to understand the role and importance of root architecture in abiotic stress resilience and the mechanisms and plasticity of stress-induced microbiome recruitment and their effect on plant performance under abiotic stresses.

The goal of my research is firstly to provide fundamental knowledge on how to improve the resilience of crops towards salinity and drought stress. My research focuses on understanding how plants adapt their development to stresses and how the interactions with root-associated microflora evolved during plant evolution and domestication. Next step will be to use the knowledge to develop biostimulants (organic or plant growth-promoting bacteria) that can improve stress resilience in crops and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers in the soil, as well as the CO2 footprint of the greenhouses for sustainable agriculture.