Plant Nutrition and Genomics Lab · Valdivia, Chile
From the lab to the field
We study how plants sense and coordinate the use of sulfur and nitrogen. We combine bioinformatics, transcriptomics, molecular biology and physiology to find regulatory genes that improve growth and yield in wheat and other crops.
16
S
Sulfur · 32.06
7
N
Nitrogen · 14.007
Research
Current projects
From a candidate gene in wheat roots to a yield trial in the field.
FONDECYT Regular · Nº 1230833
The TaNLP5 regulatory network under sulfur deficiency in wheat
We test whether the transcription factor TaNLP5 controls the sulfur-deficiency response in wheat roots, identify its target genes, and measure how its overexpression affects sulfur use efficiency and grain yield.
- Overexpressor lines + RNA-seq
- Direct target genes by combining RNA-seq and DAP-seq
- Two-year field trial with overexpressor lines
iBio · Millennium Institute
Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology
We are part of iBio, which studies how environmental perturbations (nitrogen, light, temperature) and biological interactions control plants and fungi, including time-dependent genetic programs.
Team
Who we are
Publications
Recent publications
Lab members in bold.
Transcriptional regulatory crosstalk between heat stress and nitrogen–sulfur nutrition in plants NEW
Soto-Rauch G, Saez APR, Salvo A, Canales J
2026 · Journal of Experimental Botany erag561 (advance article) · DOI ↗
A fungal clock protein exerts extra-circadian roles in nitrogen metabolism and mitochondrial function NEW
Olivares-Yañez C, Seguel A, Spanner R, Couillaud G, Alessandri MP, Henríquez-Urrutia M, Müller-Esparza H, van Kan JAL, Canales J, Canessa P, Larrondo LF
2026 · Microbiological Research 128766 (in press) · DOI ↗
Integrative multi-omics analysis reveals stress-specific molecular architectures in soybean under drought and rust infection NEW
Husein G, Castro-Moretti FR, Prado M, Amorim L, Mazzafera P, Canales J, Monteiro-Vitorello CB
2026 · BMC Genomics 27 · DOI ↗
Organ-level gene-regulatory networks inferred from transcriptomic data reveal context-specific regulation and highlight novel regulators of ripening and ABA-mediated responses in tomato NEW
Fernández JD, Navarro-Payá D, Santiago A, Cerda A, Canan J, Contreras-Riquelme S, Moyano TC, Landaeta-Sepúlveda D, Melet L, Canales J, Johnson NR, Álvarez JM, Matus JT, Vidal EA
2025 · Plant Communications 6(11):101499 · DOI ↗
Sulfate deficiency-responsive microRNAs in tomato uncover an expanded and functionally integrated regulatory network NEW
Landaeta-Sepúlveda D, Johnson NR, Morales-Espinoza J, Tobar M, Sánchez E, Fernández JD, Olivares-Yáñez C, Medina J, Canales J, Vidal EA
2025 · International Journal of Molecular Sciences 26(17):8392 · DOI ↗
News
Lab news
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@fromthelabtothefield
Experiments, field trials, thesis defenses, courses and everyday lab life, told by the team.
Contact
Find us on Isla Teja
Plant Nutrition and Genomics Lab
PI
Dr. Javier Canales
Address
Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Edificio de Ciencias II, Campus Isla Teja s/n, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
Want to join the lab?
We welcome undergraduate (thesis and internships), MSc and PhD students and postdocs interested in plant nutrition, crop genomics and bioinformatics.
Email us your CV and a short note about your interests.
