Beatriz Navarro Ramirez

Beatriz Navarro is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Bari, Italy. Her research focuses on the study of the molecular interactions between viroids/virus and their host plants. B Navarro contributed to deepen the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of these infectious agents, the role of RNA silencing in the plant-viroid interplay, and the possible epigenetic effects of viroid infections on the host genome. B. Navarro applies high-throughput sequencing technologies for the identification and characterization of new viral and viroid-like infectious agents, mainly from woody plants associated with diseases of unknown etiology. These studies have allowed the development of new diagnostic tools for the control of viruses/viroids causing diseases in plants of agronomical interest. Recently she has contributed to the identification of more than 20,000 viroid-like RNAs, expanding the host range of these infectious agents to the fungal kingdom. Currently, she is also exploring the biodiversity and functional role of viroid-like RNA elements associated to fungi from different ecological niches. B. Navarro is member of the Avsunviroidae, Pospiviroidae and Ambiviricota study groups of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and associated editor of the journals Frontiers in Microbiology and Journal of Plant Pathology. Since 2024 B. Navarro has been member of the Board of Teachers of the PhD Course in Biodiversity, agriculture and environment of the University of Bari Aldo Moro. 

List of representative bibliography

  1.  Navarro B., Turina M. (2024) Viroid and viroid-like elements in plants and plant-associated microbiota: a new layer of biodiversity for plant holobionts. New Phytologist Tansley insight (in press). https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20156
  2. Forgia M.*, Navarro B.*, Daghino S., Cervera A., Gisel A., Perotto S., Aghayeva DN., Akinyuwa MF., Gobbi E., Zheludev IN., Edgar RC., Chikhi R., Turina M., Babaian A., Di Serio, F., de la Peña M. (2023) Hybrids of RNA viruses and viroid-like elements replicate in fungi. Nature Communications 14:2591 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38301-2 (* These authors have contributed equally to this work)
  3. Navarro B., Li S., Gisel A., Chiumenti M., Minutolo M., Alioto D., Di Serio F. (2022) A Novel Self-Cleaving Viroid-Like RNA Identified in RNA Preparations from a Citrus Tree Is Not Directly Associated with the Plant. Viruses 14, 2265. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102265
  4. Navarro B., Flores R., Di Serio F. (2021) Advances in Viroid-Host Interactions. Annual Review of Virology 8:305-325. doi: 10.1146/annurev-virology-091919-092331
  5. Navarro B., Gisel A., Serra P., Chiumenti M., Di Serio F., Flores R. (2021) Degradome Analysis of Tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana Plants Infected with Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22:3725. Doi: 10.3390/ijms22073725
  6. Olmedo-Velarde A*., Navarro B.*, Hu J.S., Melzer M.J., Di Serio F. (2020). Novel Fig-Associated Viroid-Like RNAs Containing Hammerhead Ribozymes in Both Polarity Strands Identified by High-Throughput Sequencing. Frontiers in Microbiology 11: 1903. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01903. *These authors have contributed to this work
  7. Di Serio, F., Torchetti, E.M., Daròs, J.A., Navarro, B. (2019) Reassessment of Viroid RNA Cytosine Methylation Status at the Single Nucleotide Level. Viruses 11: 357. Doi: 10.3390/v11040357.
  8. Navarro B., Minutolo M., De Stradis A., Palmisano F., Alioto D., Di Serio F. (2018) The first phlebo-like virus infecting plants: a case study on the adaptation of negative-stranded RNA viruses to new hosts. Molecular Plant Pathology 19:1075-1089. Doi: 10.1111/mpp.12587
  9. Navarro B., Gisel A., Rodio M.E., Delgado S., Flores R., Di Serio F. (2012). Small RNAs containing the pathogenic determinant of a chloroplast-replicating viroid guide degradation of a host mRNA as predicted by RNA silencing. The Plant Journal 70: 991–1003. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2012.04940.x
  10. Navarro B., Flores R. (1997). Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid: Unusual structural properties of a subgroup of self-cleaving viroids with hammerhead ribozymes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of USA 94: 11262-11267.Doi 10.1073/pnas.94.21.11262

For more, see:
Beatriz Navarro (0000-0001-8981-1018) - ORCID