Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

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Dr Sara Hortal Botifoll joined the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in September 2012 as a research fellow working with Prof Ian Anderson. She is mainly interested on better understanding the effects of elevated CO₂ and drought on the structure of microbial communities, their functional response and the outcome of mycorrhizal interactions.

Dr Sara Hortal received her PhD in 2008 from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) under the supervision of Dr Javier Parladé (IRTA, Spain). Her thesis aimed at evaluating the influence of different factors affecting the persistence of inoculated edible ectomycorrhizal fungi in the field. She optimized non-destructive molecular techniques for the identification and quantification of mycorrhizas and extraradical mycelium. During her PhD, she also visited Dr Thomas Bruns lab (University of California at Berkeley, USA) where she mainly collaborated with Dr Peter Kennedy in the study of competition relationships between ectomycorrhizal fungi.

In 2008 she joined the Ecogenomics of Interactions lab headed by Dr Francis Martin at INRA (Nancy, France) as postdoctoral fellow. There she participated in a project in collaboration with the lab headed by Dr Jaroslaw Burczyk (Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego, Poland) within the framework of the Evoltree network. Her research focused on the characterisation of the belowground population structure of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria amethystina and the ectomycorrhizal communities associated to beech trees.

In 2010 Dr Sara Hortal joined the Functional Ecology lab headed by Dr Francisco I. Pugnaire at CSIC (Almeria, Spain) as postdoctoral fellow. Her research focused on characterising the microbial communities inhabiting arid ecosystems and understanding their role in plant-plant interactions processes such as facilitation.

Areas of research

Molecular ecology, mycorrhizal fungi, competition, community structure, microbial diversity, abundance, population genetics, metagenomics, plant-soil feedbacks, climate change

Teaching expertise

Associate professor at Animal Biology, Vegetal Biology and Ecology department of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) from 2001 to 2003.

Awards and recognition

• Postdoctoral fellowship associated to projects of excellence (Andalusian Autonomous Government, 2010)
• Travel grant for attending IMC9: The Biology of Fungi Conference in Edinburgh, UK (2010)
• Mobility grant for field sampling at ISS site in Poland (Evoltree network, 2009)
• Postdoctoral fellowship (INRA, 2008)
• Postdoctoral fellowship (Spanish Education Ministry, 2008 – resigned)
• Best poster award. 3rd Doctorial symposium Professional development of PhDs and formation on R+D management (Catalan Universities, 2006)
• Scholarship for a stay at Univeristy of California (Catalan Autonomous Government, 2006)
• Scholarship for PhD studies (Catalan Autonomous Government, 2004)
• Erasmus scholarship (Universita degli Studi di Torino, Italy, 2001)
• Jury member of the doctoral thesis “Arbuscular mycorrhizas on semiarid ecosystems. Response to factors of environmental stress” by Laura Martinez Garcia. Universidad de Almeria, 2010
• Referee reviewer for journals such as New Phytologist, Annals of Forest Science, Mycologia, Journal of Arid Environments or Molecular Ecology

Selected publications

Journal articles

Hortal S, Bastida F, Armas C, Lozano YM, Moreno JL, García C, Pugnaire FI, (2013) 'Soil microbial community under a nurse-plant species changes in composition, biomass and activity as the nurse grows', Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol.64, pp 139-146

Hortal S, Trocha LK, Murat C, Chybicki IJ, Buée M, Trojankiewicz M, Burczyk J, Martin F, (2012) 'Beech roots are simultaneously colonized by multiple genets of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria amethystina clustered in two genetic groups', Molecular Ecology, vol.21, pp 2116-2129

Parladé J, Hortal S, de la Varga H, Pera J, (2011) 'Intraspecific variability of Lactarius deliciosus isolates: colonization ability and survival after cold storage', Mycorrhiza, vol.21, pp 393-401

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J, (2009) 'Field persistence of the edible ectomycorrhizal fungus Lactarius deliciosus: effects of inoculation strain, initial colonization level, and site characteristics', Mycorrhiza, vol.19, pp 167-177

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J, (2008) 'Tracking mycorrhizas and extraradical mycelium of the edible fungus Lactarius deliciosus under field competition with Rhizopogon spp', Mycorrhiza, vol.18, pp 69-77

Kennedy PG, Hortal S, Bergemann SE, Bruns TD, (2007) 'Competitive interactions among three ectomycorrhizal fungi and their relation to host plant performance', Journal of Ecology, vol.95, pp 1338-1345

Kennedy PG, Bergemann SE, Hortal S, Bruns TD, (2007) 'Determining the outcome of field-based competition between two Rhizopogon species using real-time PCR', Molecular Ecology, vol.16, pp 881-890

Parladé J, Hortal S, Pera J, Galipienso L, (2007) 'Quantitative detection of Lactarius deliciosus extraradical soil mycelium by real-time PCR and its application in the study of fungal persistence and interspecific competition', Journal of Biotechnology, vol.128, pp 14-23

Hortal S, Pera J, Galipienso L, Parladé J, (2006) 'Molecular identification of the edible ectomycorrhizal fungus Lactarius deliciosus in the symbiotic and extraradical mycelium stages', Journal of Biotechnology, vol.126, pp 123-134

Presentations in conferences

Vincenot L, Labbe J, Hortal S, Roy M, Martin F, Selosse MA. Laccaria amethystina, a model for multi-scale studies of population spatial genetic structure for ectomycorrhizal temperate Basidiomycetes. 9th meeting of Phytopathology – Mycology (Aussois, France), 2012. Oral presentation.

Hortal S, Lozano Y, Armas C, Moreno JL, Bastida F, García C, Pugnaire FI. Soil microbial communities under Retama sphaerocarpa shrubs in a semiarid environment. 12th European Ecological Federation Congress (Avila, Spain), 2011. Poster.

Parladé J, Hortal S, De la Varga H, Pera J. Root colonization variability of Lactarius deliciosus isolates. 6th International Workshop on Edible Mycorrhizal Mushrooms (Rabat, Morocco), 2011. Poster.

Hortal S, Trocha LK, Buée M, Trojankiewicz M, Burczyk J, Martin F. Above and belowground population structure of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria amethystina in a beech forest. 9th International Mycological Conference - The Biology of Fungi (Edinburgh, UK), 2010. Oral presentation.

Hortal S, Trocha LK, Buée M, Trojankiewicz M, Burczyk J, Martin F. Above and belowground population structure of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria amethystina in a beech forest. Conference on Forest Ecosystem Genomics and Adaptation (San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain), 2010. Poster.

Vincenot L, Labbe J, Hortal S, Selosse MA. Contrasted multi-scale genetic patterns in populations of the model ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Laccaria amethystina. 12th Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (Turin, Italy), 2009. Poster.

Labbe J, Hortal S, Vincenot L, Martin F, Selosse MA. Single Nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers at loci related to adaptation in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor. EVOLTREE, 3rd Annual Meeting (Baden, Austria), 2009. Oral presentation.

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J. Effect of the initial colonization level and the inoculated strain in the field persistence of the edible ectomycorrhizal fungus Lactarius deliciosus. 21st New Phytologist Symposium, The ecology of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi (Montpellier, France), 2008. Poster.

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J. Persistence of Lactarius deliciosus extraradical soil mycelium and mycorrhizas in an interspecific competition study. 4th International Symposium on Physiological Processes in Roots of Woody Plants (Bangor, Wales), 2007. Poster.

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J. Quantitative detection of extraradical soil mycelium of Lactarius deliciosus by real-time PCR. Application in the study of interspecific competition. 5th International Conference on Mycorrhiza. Mycorrhiza for Science and Society (Granada, Spain), 2006. Oral presentation.

Hortal S, Pera J, Parladé J. Tracking edible Lactarius strains in different phases of the managed mycorrhizal symbiosis. IV International Workshop on Edible Mycorrhizal Mushrooms (Murcia, Spain), 2005. Poster.

Hortal S, Galipienso L, Pera J, Parladé J. Quantification of ectomycorrhizal fungi in the soil by Real Time PCR. Annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Biology (Barcelona, Spain), 2005. Comparative biochemistry and physiology vol 141A number 3/suppl. S223. Poster.