C3 Seminar: Briardo Llorente

The developmental control of plastid identity is essential for photosynthetic eukaryotic life. However, the mechanisms regulating plastid differentiation are largely unknown. We are particularly interested in unraveling the mechanism underlying the differentiation of chloroplasts into chromoplasts, which are plastids specialized in accumulating high levels of health-promoting carotenoid pigments with activity as dietary antioxidants and vitamin A precursors. In contrast to the prevailing belief, our results invoke carotenoid-related signals as the long-sought primary regulators of this process, thereby indicating that the chromoplast developmental program is subordinated to metabolic control. These findings open new prospects to artificially manipulate chromoplast biogenesis for studying the differentiation of plastid identity and for improving the nutritional benefits of leaf crops and algae-based food.

About the speaker

Briardo Llorente - CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Fellow  

Born in Argentina, Briardo has worked extensively internationally, having spent time in Spain, Denmark, and in the USA. He completed his PhD at the University of Buenos Aires and worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and the Salk Institute in California. Then, he held positions as a Marie Curie Fellow and Juan de la Cierva Fellow at the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (GRAG) in Barcelona. 

Briardo recently joined Macquarie University as a CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Fellow. He is particularly interested in developing synthetic photosynthetic life, organisms with new and improved biological functions, and using synthetic biology to study evolution.

See Briardo's Google Scholar profile.