Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA-CIFOR Madrid, Spain)
Web: www.inia.es

Organisation and Competences: INIA is a National Research Institute belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which has contributed to the implementation of National programs on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Genetic Resources.

CIFOR (Centro de Investigación Forestal) focuses its research on adaptive responses of autochthonous conifer to environmental changes. The INIA-CIFOR team involved in this project brings together experts in functional and structural genomics, and ecophysiology, involved in the analysis of conifer species.  It has participated in FP5, FP6, FP7 international research projects supported by the EC (TREESNIPS, NTB, FoResTTraC), related to forest tree molecular genetics and genomics, as well as in the NoE EVOLTREE. It has also participated in the COST Action E-28 WP3 "Functional Genomics of Tree Health" as well as in the Trilateral Cooperation Projects in Plant Genomics between Spain, France and Germany DIGENFOR, and SUSTAINPINE. From 2005 to 2007 María-Teresa Cervera has coordinated the Spanish Forest Genomics Network and since 2007 she is in charge of the European coordination of Conifer Reference Genome Sequence Steering Committee.

Role: Maria Teresa Cervera is the scientific coordinator of the project as well as leader of WP3 and task 6.1. INIA-CIFOR scientists will be also involved in WP1, WP2, WP5, WP6 and WP7.

Staff members' profile:
Dr. María-Teresa Cervera- PhD in molecular biology of woody plant species.She is project leader for genomic studies in INIA-CIFOR. Her research topics include dissection of adaptive traits in pines using genomic and epigenomic approaches, genetic mapping, comparative mapping and QTL analysis. She has contributed with more than 50 publications in international refereed journals.
Dr. Ángeles Guevara- PhD in molecular biology. He is leading functional genomics for adaptation in forest tree species at INIA-CIFOR, currently she is also studying on the epigenetic control of the response to drought in forest tree species.
Dr. Ismael Aranda- PhD in forest ecophysiology. He is project leader on forest ecophysiology at INIA-CIFOR with a broad experience in Fagaceae and Pinaceae; currently he focuses physiological study of forest tree adaptation and acclimatation to stress.
Dr. José Antonio Cabezas- PhD in molecular biology. He is an expert on genetic dissection of complex traits of woody plant species as well as comparative mapping at INIACIFOR.
The other key scientists involved in ProCoGen are Drs. Nuria de María, María Dolóres Vélez and David Sánchez-Gómez.