Molecular plant development (root, reproductive organs, seed germination, proline signaling, signalosome); plant genomics; plant biotechnology; plant oncogenes.

Root development

Moubayidin, L., Perilli, S., Dello Ioio, R., Di Mambro, R., Costantino, P. and Sabatini, S. (2010) The growth phase of the Arabidopsis root meristem is controlled by the rate of cell differentiation, Current Biology, 20, 1138–1143.

Dello Ioio, R., Nakamura, K., Moubayidin, L., Perilli, S., Taniguchi, M., Morita, M., Aoyama, T., Costantino, P. and Sabrina Sabatini, S. (2008) A genetic framework for the control of cell division and differentiation in the root meristem, Science, 322, 1380-1384.

Dello Ioio, R., Scaglia Linhares, F., Scacchi, E., Casamitjana- Martinez, E., Heidstra, R., Costantino, P. and Sabatini, S. (2007) Cytokinins determine Arabidopsis root meristem size by controlling cell differentiation. Current Biology, 17, 678-682.

Reproductive organs

Cecchetti, V., Altamura, M.M. Falasca, G. Costantino, P. and Cardarelli, M (2008) Auxin regulates Arabidopsis anther dehiscence, pollen maturation and filament elongation. Plant Cell, 20, 1760-1774. 

Cecchetti, V., Altamura, M.M., Serino, G., Pomponi, M., Falasca, G. Costantino, P. and Cardarelli, M. (2007) ROX1, a gene induced by rolB is involved in procambial cell proliferation and xylem differentiation in tobacco stamen. Plant Journal, 49, 27-37.

Seed germination

Rizza, A., Boccaccini, A., Lopez-Vidriero, I., Costantino P. and Vittorioso, P. (2011) Inactivation of the ELIP1 and ELIP2 genes affects Arabidopsis seed germination. New Phytologist 190, 896-905.

Gabriele, S., Rizza, A., Martone, J., Circelli, P., Costantino, P. and Vittorioso, P. (2010) The Dof protein DAG1 mediates PIL5 activity on seed germination by negatively regulating the GA biosynthetic gene AtGA3ox1. Plant Journal, 61, 312-323.

Proline signaling

Mattioli, R., Costantino, P. and Trovato, M. (2009) Proline accumulation in plants: not only stress. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 4, 1016-1018.

Mattioli, R., Marchese, D., D'Angeli, S., Altamura, M.M., Costantino, P. and Trovato, M. (2008) Modulation of intracellular proline levels affects flowering time and inflorescence architecture in Arabidopsis. Plant Mol Biol, 66, 277-288.

Biotechnology

Brunetti, P., Zanella, L., Proia, A., De Paolis, A., Falasca, G., Altamura, M.M., Sanità di Toppi, L., Costantino, P. and Cardarelli, M. (2011) Cadmium tolerance and phytochelatin content of Arabidopsis seedlings overexpressing the phytochelatin synthase gene AtPCS1. Journal of Experimental Botany, first published online: August 12, 2011 1

http://www.biologia.uniroma1.it/cgibin/campusnet/docenti.pl/Show?_id=costantino;sort=DEFAULT;search=;hits=169

Education

1971Laurea in Chemistry cum laude, University La Sapienza, Rome

Positions 

Since 1990Full Professor of Molecular Biology, University La Sapienza 

1986-1990 Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, University La Sapienza

1979-1986 Eniricerche staff scientist, c/o University La Sapienza

1975-1978 Eniricerche staff scientist, Monterotondo (RM)

1972-1975 Post-doctoral Fellow, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (CA,USA) 

Awards & Honors

Since 2007Member, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei

Since 1996Member, EMBO 

1993Gold medal for natural sciences, Italian National Academy of XL

1974 Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Award

Appointments & Committees 

2010-to date      Scientific representative of the Ministry of Research (MIUR) in ERA-Net ERA-CAPS

2009-to dateMember of the MIUR Committee for International Research Strategies

2008-to dateAssociate Editor of BMC Plant Biology

2007-to dateRepresentative of  MIUR in the Italian Scientific Platform Food for Life

2007-to dateMember of the Board of Directors of the Italian Scientific Platform Plants for the Future

2007-to dateItalian Delegate for Theme 2, Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology, EU FP7 

2004-to dateCoordinator of the Italian Network for Plant genomics (IPGN)

2002-to dateMember of the Board of Directors, Institut Pasteur of  Rome

1998-to date Member of the Board of Directors and Scientific Committee of CNBMP

2008-2011Member of the Scientific Committee, Food and Nutrition National Research Inst. (INRAN)

2007-2009Member of the Research Commission, Ateneo Federato della Scienza e Tecnologia

2004-2009Scientific representative of MIUR in ERA-Net Plant Genomics 

2005 Member of the EMBO Panel for the evaluation of CNB, CSIC, Madrid

2002-2005Member of the Board of Directors, EPSO (European Plant Science Organization)

2002 Member of the Evaluation Committee, Fundação Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal

2001-2005Member of the Scientific Committee, University of Siena

2001-2003Member of the EMBO E-BioSci Committee

1998 Member of the EMBO Panel for the evaluation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 

1995-2001 Director of the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University La Sapienza

1995-1997 Member of the Fellowship Committee, Human Frontier Science Program Organization 

1992-1998 President of the National University Consortium for Plant Molecular Biology (CNBMP)