PTBER award for dr hab. inż. Katarzyna Otulak-Kozieł

Dr hab. inż. Katarzyna Otulak-Kozieł from the Department of Botany, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences received the main prize of the Polish Society of Experimental Biology of Plants (PTBER) for the series of experimental publications:

  • Otulak-Kozieł, K.; Kozieł, E.; Lockhart, B.E.L.; Bujarski, J.J. 2020. Viruses 12, 66. doi:10.3390/v12010066
  • Otulak-Kozieł, K.; Kozieł, E.; Bujarski, J.J.; Frankowska-Łukawska, J.; Torres, M.A. 2020. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21, 8510. doi:10.3390/ijms21228510
  • Kozieł, E.; Otulak-Kozieł, K.; Bujarski, J.J. 2020. Cells 9, 148. doi:10.3390/cells9010148

As part of the 10th International Conference of the Polish Society for Experimental Biology of Plants, which took place on September 20-23, 2021. in Katowice, the laureate had the honor of giving a presentation entitled: “Cell wall remodeling and respiratory burst oxidase homolog D & F as modulators in resistance and susceptible plant-virus interactions”.

Research work by dr hab. Eng. Katarzyna Otulak-Kozieł focuses on a multi-level analysis of interactions between plants and pathogens, with particular emphasis on plant viruses. The research takes into account:

  • the use of microscopic and bioinformatics methods in the structural and localization analysis of viral proteins involved in the replication and transport process, in particular for PDV, TRV and PVY viruses, – in cooperation with the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb in the USA;
  • assessment and characterization of physiological and ultrastructural changes generated by Endornaviruses – in cooperation with the Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Plant Physiology, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University (LSU), USA;
  • determining the nature and role of quantitative and qualitative changes within the cell wall of plant cells and their impact on limiting the mobility of viruses or generating resistance to these pathogens;
  • assessment of the role of selected NADPH oxidase oxidase homologues during host hypersensitivity and susceptibility reactions to viruses from the Potyviridae family – in cooperation with Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) —Instituto Nacional de Investigacióny Agraria Agraria Alimentaria (INIA) and Departamento deBiotecnología-Biología Vegetal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Madrid, Spain