Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the Italian National Research Council, Italy
Beatriz Navarro is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the Italian National Research Council (Bari, Italy). Her research focuses on the study of the molecular interactions between viroids/virus and their host plants. B Navarro contributed to deepen the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of these infectious agents, the role of RNA silencing in the plant-viroid interplay, and the possible epigenetic effects of viroid infections on the host genome. B. Navarro applies high-throughput sequencing technologies for the identification and characterization of new viral and viroid-like infectious agents, mainly from woody plants associated with diseases of unknown etiology. These studies have allowed the development of new diagnostic tools for the control of viruses/viroids causing diseases in plants of agronomical interest. Recently she has contributed to the identification of more than 20,000 viroid-like RNAs infectious agents, expanding the host range of these infectious agents to the fungal kingdom. Currently, she is also exploring the biodiversity and functional role of viroid-like RNA elements associated to fungi from different ecological niches.
International symposium comprehensively covering key topics in virology
