Dr Gabriela Toledo-Ortiz

Lecturer in Plant Science

Research Overview

Gabriela is a Plant Molecular Photobiologist interested in understanding the fundamental mechanisms that allow plants to adapt their growth and development to changing environments.

In particular Gabriela has focused in characterizing the molecular components that integrate light and temperature signals for the control of photosynthesis.

Career Details

Gabriela graduated with a B.Sc. (Honors) in Chemistry and a MSc. in Biochemistry from the National University of Mexico (UNAM). From her Senior Undergraduate year she joined the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. At CAL, she worked in Prof. Wilhelm Gruissem’s lab on mechanisms of RNA processing in chloroplasts and later on protein isoprenylation and isoprenoid biosynthesis. After her MSc, she remained at Berkeley for her PhD within Prof. Peter Quail's lab (Fulbright/UCMEXUS PhD Fellowship), where she began her training as a photobiologist working in phytochrome light signal transduction pathways. Upon completion of her PhD she moved to Prof.Akira Nagatani’s lab in Kyoto University (JSPS Fellowship). In the Nagatani lab, she continued her work in photobiology studying physiological and cell biological aspects of phytochrome signaling. In 2007, she joined CRAG-Barcelona to work with Dr. Manuel Rodriguez-Concepcion on light regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis (Juan de la Cierva Researcher & JAE DOC; EMBO Short Term, University of Texas Austin, Huq Lab). In 2012 she was awarded a Marie Curie (Career Integration) to work at the University of Edinburgh with Prof. Karen Halliday. During this time she focused her research on light and temperature signal integration pathways for the control of plant metabolic pathways and the regulation of photosynthetic pigment biosynthesis by external cues.

Now as a Lecturer in Plant Sciences at Lancaster University, her group will continue dissecting novel mechanisms by which environmental cues (light and temperature) induce changes in plant photosynthetic metabolism.

PUBLICATIONS

Regulation of Carotenoid Biosynthesis by Shade Relies on Specific Subsets of Antagonistic Transcription Factors and Cofactors. Bou-Torrent J*, Toledo-Ortiz G*, Ortiz-Alcaide M*, Cifuentes-Esquivel N, Halliday KJ, Martinez-García JF, Rodriguez-Concepcion M. (* Co-First Authorship). Plant Physiol. 2015 Nov;169(3):1584-94. doi: 10.1104/pp.15.00552.

The HY5-PIF regulatory module coordinates light and temperature control of photosynthetic gene transcription. Toledo-Ortiz G, Johansson H, Lee KP, Bou-Torrent J, Stewart K, Steel G, Rodríguez-Concepción M, Halliday KJ. PLoS Genet. 2014 Jun 12;10(6):e1004416. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004416

Interaction of light and temperature signalling. Franklin KA, Toledo-Ortiz G, Pyott DE, Halliday KJ.

J Exp Bot. 2014 Jun;65(11):2859-71. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eru059.

Arabidopsis J-protein J20 delivers the first enzyme of the plastidial isoprenoid pathway to protein quality control. Pulido P, Toledo-Ortiz G, Phillips MA, Wright LP, Rodríguez-Concepción M.

Plant Cell. 2013 Oct;25(10):4183-94. doi: 10.1105/tpc.113.113001.

Protein phosphorylation regulates in vitro spinach chloroplast petD mRNA 3'-untranslated region stability, processing, and degradation. Vargas-Suárez M, Castro-Sánchez A, Toledo-Ortiz G, González de la Vara LE, García E, Loza-Tavera H. Biochimie. 2013 Feb;95(2):400-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2012.10.012.

Arabidopsis phytochrome a is modularly structured to integrate the multiple features that are required for a highly sensitized phytochrome. Oka Y, Ono Y, Toledo-Ortiz G, Kokaji K, Matsui M, Mochizuki N, Nagatani A. Plant Cell. 2012 Jul;24(7):2949-62. doi: 10.1105/tpc.111.094201.

Subcellular sites of the signal transduction and degradation of phytochrome A. Toledo-Ortiz G, Kiryu Y, Kobayashi J, Oka Y, Kim Y, Nam HG, Mochizuki N, Nagatani A. Plant Cell Physiol. 2010 Oct;51(10):1648-60. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcq121.

Direct regulation of phytoene synthase gene expression and carotenoid biosynthesis by phytochrome-interacting factors. Toledo-Ortiz G, Huq E, Rodríguez-Concepción M.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jun 22;107(25):11626-31. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914428107.

Functional profiling reveals that only a small number of phytochrome-regulated early-response genes in Arabidopsis are necessary for optimal deetiolation. Khanna R, Shen Y, Toledo-Ortiz G, Kikis EA, Johannesson H, Hwang YS, Quail PH. Plant Cell. 2006 Sep;18(9):2157-71.

The photomorphogenesis-related mutant red1 is defective in CYP83B1, a red light-induced gene encoding a cytochrome P450 required for normal auxin homeostasis. Hoecker U, Toledo-Ortiz G, Bender J, Quail PH. Planta. 2004 Jun;219(2):195-200.

Update on the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana. Bailey PC, Martin C, Toledo-Ortiz G, Quail PH, Huq E, Heim MA, Jakoby M, Werber M, Weisshaar B. Plant Cell. 2003 Nov;15(11):2497-502.

The Arabidopsis basic/helix-loop-helix transcription factor family. Toledo-Ortiz G, Huq E, Quail PH. Plant Cell. 2003 Aug;15(8):1749-70.

Carboxyl-methylation of prenylated calmodulin CaM53 is required for efficient plasma membrane targeting of the protein. Rodríguez-Concepción M, Toledo-Ortiz G, Yalovsky S, Caldelari D, Gruissem W. Plant J. 2000 Dec;24(6):775-84.

Prenylation of the floral transcription factor APETALA1 modulates its function. Yalovsky S, Rodríguez-Concepción M, Bracha K, Toledo-Ortiz G, Gruissem W. Plant Cell. 2000 Aug;12(8):1257-66.