HS

Helena Sapeta

Also known as: Sapeta, Helena

Research areas: Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Plant Science · Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance · Plant Molecular Biology Research · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

ORCID iD 0000-0002-4177-3398
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About

I hold a BSc in Biology from the University of Évora (2009), a postgraduate degree (2012), and a PhD in Molecular Biology from NOVA University of Lisbon (2019). My research career has been focused on understanding how environmental stresses affect plant growth, development, and reproduction, with the long-term goal of contributing to crop resilience under climate change. During my PhD, I specialized in plant physiology and development, with a particular emphasis on photosynthetic flexibility and photoprotection under challenging environmental conditions. I subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at ITQB NOVA, where I investigated the regulation of suberization in Arabidopsis thaliana and cork oak under optimal and stress conditions, including drought and heat. More recently, I conducted postdoctoral focusing on the effects of elevated temperature on the male gametophyte during the progamic phase. Using transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, I investigated the molecular responses of pollen to heat stress during the progamic phase in tomato and Arabidopsis, strengthening my expertise in how environmental stress impacts reproductive processes. I am currently an Auxiliary Researcher in INIAV, I.P., the State Laboratory of the area of competences of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, where I will contribute to the Portuguese olive breeding program. I aim to establish my independent research line to understand how temperature affects flowering, pollen–pistil interactions, and self-incompatibility in olive, and to translate this knowledge into practical tools for breeding and orchard design. I have published two chapters and 13 peer-reviewed articles in international journals in Plant Sciences, including Molecular Plant, The Plant Journal, Tree Physiology, Plant Cell & Environment, Journal of Experimental Botany, and Environmental and Experimental Botany. I have participated in nine competitive research projects (six FCT-funded and three EU-funded) and one COST Action, and I maintain an active international collaboration network. I am strongly committed to training young researchers, having supervised MSc and BSc students, as well as short-term research and laboratory rotation students. I have also contributed to teaching activities at MSc and PhD levels and to science outreach initiatives. Through this trajectory, I am consolidating my scientific independence while contributing to breeding-oriented research aligned with national priorities for sustainable agriculture.

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