Dr. Mariano Perales interest is the crosstalk between environmental cues sensing and above-ground plant organ development in annual and perennial species. Dr. Perales acquired unique expertise in the regulatory mechanism of the circadian clock and stem cell niches from genetic and molecular biology disciplines. His work has contributed to unraveling an epigenetic control of photoperiodic responses of the circadian clock and transcriptional logic of stem cell niche maintenance in the shoot apical meristems. Using this experience, he is contributing to decipher mechanisms of how environmental cues fine-tune plant development and stress responses through circadian regulated genes using Arabidopsis and Populus models. Understanding the molecular basis environmental response is crucial to find out biotechnological solutions to increase crop yield under a constantly changing climate.

During 2014 to 2020 period, he has led 2 national, 1 international (EC, Marie Curie Reintegration Grant) projects and the recently granted EC, ERA-NeT SUSCROP 2021-23. Along his career, he has contributed with 22 SCI, Q1, articles, 10 of them during the 2016-2020 period. He has also supervised 2 doctoral theses presented in 2017 and 2019, and two additional ones will be presented in 2022 and 2023. Since 2014, he is teaching in the biotechnology master’s and bachelor’s degree at UPM.