I come from a background in molecular biology and a broad interest in marine biology. My current and former research interests are in the molecular ecology of seagrasses. Using a combination of gene-expression studies together with photo-physiological and epi-genetic investigations, I want to determine the effects of environmental changes on the adaptive response of seagrasses, and ultimately their ability to cope with ongoing and expected regional impacts and global climate changes. During my PhD, different “target” and “omics” gene-expression approaches were employed to study the complexity of seagrass response to single and multiple stressors (e.g. limiting light, eutrophication, herbivory and heat stress) at a different scale of biological organization (e.g. among and within different plant organs). One of the main aims of this research was to identify putative molecular biomarkers for environmental monitoring and to highlight the natural variability in the stress response existing within a single individual plant.

My current interests are more focussed on the field of ecological epigenetics, with the main aim of investigating the role of epigenetic modifications (mainly DNA methylation) in regulating gene-expression variations responsible for phenotypic accommodation to environmental changes.

For more about Miriam, please visit:
http://www.szn.it/index.php/it/personale/staff/509-ruocco-miriam

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miriam_Ruocco
https://scholar.google.co.il/citations?user=bK4EzF0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao