Cecilia Rodriguez Furlan

Biography

• Part of the NIH Biotechnology Training Program at WSU
• MPS Page

Education

• PhD in Biotechnology, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile
• Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, San Luis, Argentina

Research Interests

Food and energy crops face increasingly challenging growth conditions that constrain development and negatively impact yield. At the cellular level, plants overcome stress by directing rapid degradation of critical components through endocytic and autophagic processes. Balancing these two pathways is crucial for cell survival. However, little is known about the functional relationship and mechanisms regulating flux through endocytic and autophagic pathways. My research uses multidisciplinary approaches (proteomics, chemical biology, confocal microscopy, etc.) to study the regulation of endocytic and autophagic degradative pathways and their functional significance during stress adaptation. This knowledge will boost our understanding of how plants cope with extreme environmental conditions, providing insights that will lead to the development of stress-resilient crops.

Please contact me at c.rodriguezfurlan@wsu.edu if you are interested in discussing our research.

Representative Publications:

• Cecilia Rodriguez-Furlan, Ariana Emami, Jaimie M Van Norman. Distinct ADP-ribosylation factor-GTP exchange factors govern the opposite polarity of 2 receptor kinases. Plant Physiology, Volume 194, Issue 2, February 2024, Pages 673–683, doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiad519
• Cecilia Rodriguez-Furlan, Ariana Emami, Jaimie M Van Norman. Distinct ADP-ribosylation factor-GTP exchange factors govern the opposite polarity of 2 receptor kinases. Plant Physiology, Volume 194, Issue 2, February 2024, Pages 673–683. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiad519
• Rodriguez-Furlan, C., Campos, R., Toth, J. N., & Van Norman, J. M. (2022). Distinct mechanisms orchestrate the contra-polarity of IRK and KOIN, two LRR-receptor-kinases controlling root cell division. Nature communications, 13(1), 1-15.
• Rodriguez-Furlan, C., Domozych, D., Qian, W., Enquist, P. A., Li, X., Zhang, C., … & Hicks, G. R. (2019). Interaction between VPS35 and RABG3f is necessary as a checkpoint to control fusion of late compartments with the vacuole. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(42), 21291-21301.
• Jiang, J., Rodriguez-Furlan, C., Wang, J. Z., de Souza, A., Ke, H., Pasternak, T., … & Dehesh, K. (2018). Interplay of the two ancient metabolites auxin and MEcPP regulates adaptive growth. Nature communications, 9(1), 1-11.
• Rodriguez-Furlán, C., Salinas-Grenet, H., Sandoval, O., Recabarren, C., Arraño-Salinas, P., Soto-Alvear, S., … & Blanco-Herrera, F. (2016). The root hair specific SYP123 regulates the localization of cell wall components and contributes to rizhobacterial priming of induced systemic resistance. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 1081.
• Rodriguez-Furlán, C., Miranda, G., Reggiardo, M., Hicks, G. R., & Norambuena, L. (2016). High throughput selection of novel plant growth regulators: assessing the translatability of small bioactive molecules from Arabidopsis to crops. Plant Science, 245, 50-60.