Paolo Pesaresi
Paolo Pesaresi
e-mail:
affiliation: Dept of Biomolecular Science and Biotechnology
research area(s): Genetics And Genomics, Chemical Biology
Course: Biomolecular Sciences
University/Istitution: Università di Milano
01.2009-present: Assistant professor at "Dipartimento di Scienze Biomolecolari e Biotecnologie" Facoltà di Scienze Mat. Fis. Nat., Università degli studi di Milano.

2006-2008: Group leader position at "Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale" University of Milan. Financial support has been obtained from the Italian Science Foundation "MIUR", via a four year reintegration grant named "Rientro dei Cervelli". The project has the aim to uncover factors involved in the chloroplast-nucleus crosstalk.

2002-2005: Post-doc position at Max-Planck-Institute für Züchtungsforschung, Koeln, Germany. The project has the aim to uncover Arabidopsis genes playing a major role in the regulation of photosynthesis.

1999-2002: PhD in Genetics at Max-Planck-Institute für Züchtungsforschung, Koeln, Germany. Graduated Summa cum Laude (sehr gut). The PhD project had the aim to uncover the functions of Arabidopsis genes involved at different levels in the process of photosynthesis by functional genomics approach. The title of PhD thesis was: "Molecular and Physiological Characterization of the Photosynthetic Mutants prpl11-1, psae1-1 and atmak3-1".

08.1998-12.1998: Practical training in Molecoular Biology at Experimental Institute for Cereal Research, Fiorenzuola d"Arda (PC), Italy.

11.1996-05.1997: Short-term fellowship at Università di Verona, in the lab of Prof. Roberto Bassi. The project has the aim to mutagenise and reconstitute in vitro the Photosystem II antenna protein, CP29.

1990-1996: Biological Sciences Faculty at Università di Urbino (PU), Italy. Graduated Summa cum Laude. Two years practical thesis work at Università di Verona (09.1994-10.1996), in the lab of Prof. Roberto Bassi. The title of the thesis is: "Role of Carotenoids and Antenna Proteins in the Zeaxanthin dependent photoprotective mechanism".
My main research interests focus on the functional genomics and regulation of photosynthesis in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Since January 1999, I have been involved in the functional characterization of nuclear genes that take part at different levels in the process of photosynthesis. In particular, a Forward genetics approach consisting with the screening of T-DNA- and transposon-mutagenised Arabidopsis populations for plants affected in their photosynthetic performance has been carried out. By this strategy, we were able to isolate a set of mutants affected at different levels in photosynthesis leading to the molecular dissection of a series of processes such as linear electron transport, photoprotection, chloroplast protein import. The same aspects were also analysed by Reverse Genetics taking profit of the large collection of Arabidopsis T-DNA insertional mutants available nowadays. The identification of knock-out mutants in genes encoding subunits of Photosystem I and other protein complexes of thylakoid membranes has allowed to reveal important molecular details of the thylakoid electron transport chain. Moreover, a Transcriptomics approach based on a macro-array spotted with about 3000 gene sequence tags, encoding for chloroplast imported proteins resulted to be an extremely powerful tool to identify candidate genes to be subjected to Reverse genetics investigation. In particular, the bioinformatics analysis of around 100 transcript profiles has allowed to identify set of genes (co-regulons) regulated in the same way under all the different conditions analysed. Based on the principle that co-regulated genes encode for proteins playing a role in the same process, functions could be attributed to genes encoding for unknown proteins. As a matter of fact, this strategy has lead to the identification of a new thylakoid protein complex involved in the cyclic electron transport around the Photosystem I, whose existence has been hypothesised for more than 40 years.
Moreover, the Transcriptomics strategy has allowed to dissect the expression regulation of nuclear photosynthetic genes under different genetic and environmental conditions, improving our comprehension of the chloroplast-nucleus crosstalk.
From beginning of 2006 to present, I am leading a group at University of Milano, focused on the characterization of chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signalling in Arabidopsis thaliana. By using bioinformatics, genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology, we are trying to characterise the complex protein network responsible of the chloroplast-nucleus communication. Currently, our interests are focused on the characterization of APetala 2 (AP2) transcritption factors involved in the expression regulation of nuclear photosynthesis-related genes.
1. Pribil M., Pesaresi P., Hertle A., Barbato R., Leister D. Role of plastid protein phosphatase TAP38 in LHCII dephosphorylation and thylakoid electron flow. Plos Biology, 8(1) (2010): e1000288. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000288

2. Pesaresi P., Hertle A., Pribil M., Schneider A., Kleine T., Leister D. Optimizing Photosynthesis under Fluctuating Light: The Role of the Arabidopsis STN7 kinase. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 5 (2010)

3. Nilsson S., Backman HG., Pesaresi P., Leister D., Glaser E. Deletion of an organellar peptidasome PreP affects early development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Mol. Biol., 71 (2009): 497-508

4. Pesaresi, P., Hertle, A., Pribil, M., Kleine, T., Wagner, R., Strissel, H., Inhatowicz, A., Bonardi, V., Scharfenberg, M., Schneider, A., Pfansschimdt, T. Leister, D. Balancing of Excitation Energy Distribution between Photosystems: Functional Relationship of State Transitions to Long-Term Photosynthetic Acclimation. The Plant Cell, 21 (2009): 2402-2423

5. Prinsi B., Negri A.S., Pesaresi P., Cocucci M., Espen L. Evaluation of protein pattern changes in roots and leaves of Zea mays plants in response to nitrate availability by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis. BMC Plant Biology 9 (2009): 113

6. Pesaresi P., Schrfenberg M., Weigel M., Granlund I., Schröder W.P., Finazzi G., Rappaport F., Masiero S., Furini A., Jahns P., Leister D. Mutants, overexpressors and interactors of Arabidopsis plastocyanin isoforms: revised roles of plastocyanin in photosynthetic electron flow and thylakoid redox state. Molecular Plant 2 (2009): 236-248

7. DalCorso G., Pesaresi P., Masiero S., Aseeva E., Schunemann D., Finazzi G., Joliot P., Barbato R., Leister D. A complex containing PPP7 and PGR5 is involved in the switch between linear and ferredoxin-dependent cyclic electron flow in Arabidopis. Cell 132 (2008): 273-285

8. Inhatowicz A.*, Pesaresi P.*, Wolters D., Müller B., Leister D. Impaired Photosystem I oxidation induces STN7-dependent phosphorylation of the light-harvesting complex I protein Lhca4 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta 227 (2008): 717-722
* The two authors contributed equally to this work

9. Pesaresi P., Schneider A., Kleine T., Leister D. Interorganellar comunication. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 10 (2007): 600-606

10. Inhatowicz A.*, Pesaresi P.*, Leister D. The E subunit of photosystem I is not essential for linear electron flow and photoautotrophic growth in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta 226 (2007): 889-895
* The two authors contributed equally to this work

11. Pesaresi P., Masiero S., Eubel H., Braun H.P., Bhushan S., Glaser E., Salamini F., and Leister D. Nuclear photosynthetic gene expression is synergistically modulated by rates of protein synthesis in chloroplasts and mitochondria. The Plant Cell 18 (2006): 970-991.

12. Bonardi V.*, Pesaresi P.*, Becker T., Schleiff E., Wagner R., Pfannschmidt T., Jahns P., Leister D. Photosystem II core phosphorylation and photosynthetic acclimation require two different protein kinases. Nature 437 (2005): 1179-1182.
* The two authors contributed equally to this work

13. Ihnatowicz A., Pesaresi P., Varotto C., Richly E., Schneider A., Jahns P., Salamini F., Leister D. Mutants of photosystem I subunit D of Arabidopsis thaliana: effects on photosynthesis, photosystem I stability and expression of nuclear genes for chloroplast functions. Plant J. 37 (2004): 839-852.

14. Ihnatowicz A., Pesaresi P., Richly E., Salamini F., Leister D. Mutants for photosystem I subunit D of Arabidopsis thaliana. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 26 (2004): 96

15. Weigel M., Pesaresi P., Leister D. Tracking the function of the cytochrome c6-like protein in higher plants. Trends Plant Sci. 8 (2003): 513-517.

16. Maiwald D., Dietzmann A., Jahns P., Pesaresi P., Joliot P., Joliot A., Levin J.Z., Salamini F., Leister D. Knock-Out of the genes coding for the Rieske protein and the ATP-synthase delta-subunit of Arabidopsis. Effects on photosynthesis, thylakoid protein composition, and nuclear chloroplast gene expression. Plant Physiol. 133 (2003): 191-202.

17. Weigel M., Varotto C., Pesaresi P., Salamini F., Leister D. Plastocyanin is indispensable for photosynthetic electron flow in Arabidopsis thaliana. J. Biol. Chem. 278 (2003): 1286-31289.

18. Pesaresi P., Haigh N., Masiero S., Dietzmann A., Eichacker L., Wickner R., Salamini F., Leister D. Cytoplasmic N-terminal protein acetylation is required for efficient photosynthesis in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 15 (2003): 1817-1832.


Project Title:
Characterization of AP2 transcription factors involved in chloroplast-to-nucleus comunication
The project has the aim to characterized the chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signalling in Arabidopsis thaliana. By using bioinformatics, genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology, we intend to characterise the complex protein network responsible of the chloroplast-nucleus communication. Currently, our interests are focused on the characterization of APetala 2 (AP2) transcritption factors involved in the expression regulation of nuclear photosynthesis-related genes.