Ana Montalvao

I am interested in various fundamental and applied aspects of plant health. Therefore, I joined the PATHOCOM Project to investigate both in the field and laboratory pathogenic (bacterial) communities and their patterns of development and interactions at the ecological and genetic levels. In this project we aim to understand how microbial communities evolve and how interactions (e.g., competition, mutualism) shape their composition and structure. This will be addressed using Arabidopsis thaliana and its main bacterial leaf microbes.

Research lines

  • Plant health
  • Plant and microbe genetics
  • Microbial ecology

Short vita

  • 2022 to present

    Postoc / Max Planck Institute for Biology

  • 2018 to 2022

    PhD, Genome Research Group, Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Hamburg, Germany

  • 2016 to 2018

    M. Sc, EMJMD in Plant Health and Sustainable Cropping Systems at Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain & Crop Protection at University of Göttingen, German

  • 2011 to 2016

    B. Sc, Agricultural engineering, University of Brasilia, Brazil

Selected publications

Leite Montalvão AP, Kersten B, Kim G, Fladung M, and Müller NA. (2022). ARR17 controls dioecy in Populus by repressing Bclass MADS-box gene expression. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 377:20210217.20210217. http://doi.org/101098/rstb.2021.0217

Leite Montalvão AP, Kersten B,Fladung M and Müller NA (2021). The Diversity and Dynamics of Sex Determination in Dioecious Plants. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11:580488. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpls. 2020
Müller NA, Kersten B, Leite Montalvão AP. et al. (2020). A single gene underlies the dynamic evolution of poplar sex determination. Nature Plants 6, 630–637. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0672-9