Research Interests

She is working in the following research projects:

• Epigenetic mechanisms controlling long-lasting priming of defence for the protection of fruit postharvest. Initially funded by her BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship and later by the Horticulture Quality and Food Waste Network (BBSRC-funded), she studies the effect of priming agents in the protection of tomato harvest against grey mould. Tomato is a major crop world-wide and like other crops, substantial crop yields are lost to diseases. Grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) can cause the loss of over 50% of annual tomato crops. Novel technique development is essential to achieve a competent and eco-friendly tomato industry. Different priming agents are effective in inducing resistance against B. cinerea in tomato plants. However, little is known about whether these priming agents protects fruit from B. cinerea during tomato post-harvest storage. This project studies whether treatment of tomato plants with priming agents result in a long-lasting induced resistance against grey mould in tomato fruit. We study how long-lasting maintenance of priming is linked to epigenetic modifications such as changes in DNA methylation.
• Priming of defence in oak against powdery mildew disease. Funded by the JABBS Foundations, Dr Luna-Diez is studying how oak seedlings and mature trees express priming of defence against the fungal pathogen that causes powdery mildew disease. Her group exploits different omics approaches to unravel the mechanisms that allow oaks to defend themselves and aims to disentangle the reasons why mature trees are less susceptible to the disease than seedlings.
• Effect of elevated CO2 in plant immunity. Funded by the JABBS Foundations, her group is focussed in understanding the impact of elevated CO2 in the capacity of plants to activate defence mechanisms. Their group has recently identified that eCO2 triggers enhanced susceptibility to powdery mildew disease in oak seedlings (Sanchez-Lucas et al). Her group continues to study this to unravel the mechanisms of why this occurs and to identify the impact of eCO2 in mature trees.

• MEMBRA: Understanding MEMory of UK treescapes for Better Resilience and Adaptation This is a large UKRI-funded project through the strategy of The Future of UK Treescapes. Dr Luna-Diez leads a group of 10 investigators on the understanding of how trees create, maintain and transmit memory of stress. For more information about this large project please visit the MEMBRA website.

Scientific Inspiration

Any woman that has made it to the top and has helped other women to get there.