Ruihan Shen 

My research focusses on the effects of karrikins on nutrient use efficiency in tomato, within the EU-China innovation action ECONUTRI. My goal is not only to add to the toolbox of management practices available to growers, but also to investigate the molecular mechanisms behind karrikin-induced changes to nutrient uptake and assimilation, as well as plant development and acclimation to stress.

Diana Davydenko

The purpose of my research is to understand how strigolactones participate in the drought-stress memory mechanism using tomato plant as model. The main objective is to identify and characterise strigolactone-dependent "memory miRNAs" and their function in the stress responses. In addition, the epigenetic pattern of the genomic loci of these candidates will be also analysed to assess a possible strigolactone-dependent epigenetic regulation of their activity. The increased knowledge on this topic will provide useful tools to better understand the strategies plants adopt to cope with repeated drought events.