KHALED MASMOUDI

Present address:          Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS); Plant Molecular Genetics Laboratory. Route Sidi Mansour km 6, B.P.’1177’ 3018 Sfax-Tunisia.

Tel/Fax: +216-74 872 091; mobile: +216-98 923 266;

Email: khaled.masmoudi@cbs.rnrt.tn

 

Education:                   Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris 6, France. PhD 1993, Major- Plant Molecular Biology, Dissertation: Study of sequence variability and structure of the coat protein of Pea Seed-borne Mosaic Virus.

Mediterranean Institute of Agronomy, Bari (CIHAEM), Italy.

MSc 1989, Major- Plant protection, Thesis: Closteroviruses of grapevine: detection, characterization and production of healthy plants.

High School of Horticulture (ESH)-Sousse, Tunisia, Engineer 1987, Major- Horticulture.

 

Employment

(9/03-Present)               Professor and head of Plant Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS).

(10/02-4/03):                  Fulbright visiting Scientist, Department of Plant Science, University of Connecticut, USA.

(1/94-9/03):                    Assistant, then Associate Professor, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax.

 

Awards:                       October 2005; Distinction Order of the Cultural Merit (Sciences and Education) from Mr the President of the Republic of Tunisia.

                                    October 2002; Fulbright scholar program, University of Connecticut, USA.

                                    2004; Fulbright Alumni Initiatives Awards Program.

 

Courses taught:            (Undergraduate)- Plant molecular biology & Signal transduction, plant biotechnology, agriculture & environment.

(Graduate)- Plant biotechnology, plant transformation, plant-pathogen interactions, plant physiology, and seminars.

 

Research interests:       Molecular biology of plant water and salt stress tolerance, photosynthesis, plant water relations, plant-pathogen interactions, Plant transformation, plant genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics.

 

1.             Selected Publications (last 5 years):

 

Brini F., Amara I., Feki K., Hanin M., Khoudi H., Masmoudi K. Physilogical and molecular analyses of two Tunisian durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum Desf.) varieties showing contrasting tolerance to salt stress. Acta Physiologia Plantarum (2008) DOI 10.1007/s11738-008-0215-x.

BriniF., Hanin M., Lumbreras V., Amara I., Khoudi H., Hassairi A., Pagès M., Masmoudi K. Overexpression of wheat dehydrin DHN-5 enhances tolerance to salt and osmotic stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell Reports (2007) 26 (11): 2017-2026.

Brini F., Hanin M., Mezghanni I., Berkowitz G., Masmoudi K. Overexpression of wheat Na+/H+ antiporter TNHX1 and H+-pyrophosphatase TVP1 improve salt and drought stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Journal of Experimental Botany (2007) 58 (2): 301-308.

Brini F., Hanin M., Lumbreras V., Irar S., Pages M., Masmoudi K. Functional Characterization of DHN-5, a dehydrin showing a differential phosphorylation pattern in two Tunisian durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) varieties with marked differences in salt and drought tolerance. Plant Science (2007) 172: 20-28.

Zouari N., Ben Saad R., Legavre T., Azaza J., Sabau X., Jaoua M., Masmoudi K., Hassairi A. Identification and sequencing of ESTs from the halophyte grass Aeluropus littoralis. Gene (2007) 404: 61-69. 

Masmoudi K., Rebaï A., Ellouz R. AFLP and SSR fingerprinting to evaluate genetic diversity among bread wheat cultivars in Tunisia. Cereal Research Communications (2006). 34: 871-878.

Yoshioka K., Moeder W., Kang H.G., Kachroo P., Masmoudi K., Berkowitz G., Klessig D.F. The Chimeric Arabidopsis Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Ion Channel 11/12 Activates Multiple Pathogen Resistance Responses. Plant Cell (2006) 18: 747-763.

Brini F., Gaxiola R., Berkowitz G., Masmoudi K. Cloning and characterization of a wheat vacuolar cation/proton antiporter and pyrophosphatase proton pump. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (2005) 43: 347-354. 

Masmoudi K., Stress abiotiques: vers des variétés de blé plus tolérantes à la salinité et à la sécheresse. Biologia (2004) 1 (2) : 80-84.

Masmoudi K., Yacoubi I., Hassairi A., Elarbi L., Ellouz R. Tobacco plants transformed with an untranslatable form of the coat protein gene of the potato virus Y are resistant to viral infection. European Journal of Plant Pathology (2002) 108 (4): 285-292.

Masmoudi K., Brini F., Hassairi A., Ellouz R. Isolation and characterization of a differentially expressed sequence tag from Triticum durum salt stressed roots. Plant Physiology and biochemistry (2001) 39: 971-979.

 

Articles in international congress: (last 5 years)

Khaled Masmoudi (2003). Overexpression of TVP1 H+ pump and TNhx1 antiporter will confer salt-and drought tolerance in wheat plants. Indian-Tunisian workshop on Biotechnology in Agronomy, Tunis, Tunisia, April 24th, 2003 (Conférence).

Brini F., Masmoudi K., Gaxiola R., Berkowitz G. Cloning and characterization of wheat vacuolar cation/proton antiporter and pyrophosphatase proton pump. In Proceedings of the ASPP, Hawai-USA, July 25-30, 2003.

Masmoudi K., Brini F., Gaxiola R., Berkowitz G. Improving salt and drought tolerance of wheat in Tunisia. In Proceedings of the 3d meeting of the Arab Science & Technology Foundation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 11-14, 2004 (F4-205).

Masmoudi K., Brini F., Gaxiola R., Berkowitz G. Molecular cloning, characterization and over expression of two ion transporters from wheat involved in salt and drought tolerance. In Proceedings of the International meeting on aridoculture and oases culture, Djerba, Tunisia, November 22-25, 2004 (804-811 pp).

Khaled Masmoudi (2005). Application of plant biotechnology to address water and salt stress in developing countries. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Biotechnology for salinity and drought tolerance in plants, Islamabad, Pakistan 28-31 March 2005.

Masmoudi K, Brini F, Pages M, Gaxiola R, Berkowitz G. Genetically modified plants for improving salt and drought stress tolerance. Interdrought-II congress, Rome, Italy. September 24-28, 2005.

Brini F., Hanin M., Ayadi M., Gaxiola R., Berkowitz G., Pages M., Masmoudi K. Genes controlling drought and salinity tolerance: isolation and characterization. The 6th Tunisian Japanese Seminar on Culture, Science and Technology, Tunisia, November 2005, Page 26.

Brini F., Hanin M., Amara I., Masmoudi K. Wheat Na+/H+ antiporter and V-H+-pyrophosphatase promotes osmotic stress tolerance in yeast and in planta. In the Proceedings of the First Mediterranean Congress on Biotechnology (MCB1) & the 5th journeys of the A.T.Biotech. (pp 255) Hammamet, Tunisia 25-29 March 2006.

Ayadi M., Masmoudi K. Overexpression of two PIPs from wheat in transgenic tobacco plants and study of the stomatal conductance. In the Proceedings of the First Mediterranean Congress on Biotechnology (MCB1) & the 5th journeys of the A.T.Biotech. (pp 256) Hammamet, Tunisia 25-29 March 2006.

Amara I., Brini F., Hanin M., Masmoudi K. Effects of salinity on growth , solute concentrations, praline accumulation and chlorophyll content in wheat and overexpression of the pyrophosphatase (TVP1) under the control of salt inducible promoter. In the Proceedings of the First Mediterranean Congress on Biotechnology (MCB1) & the 5th journeys of the A.T.Biotech. (pp 295) Hammamet, Tunisia 25-29 March 2006.

Brini Faïçal, Hanin Moez, Masmoudi Khaled. Wheat dehydrin Dhn-5 overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana promotes salt and drought stress tolerance. In the Proceedings of the International conference on Biosaline Agriculture and high salinity tolerance (pp41). Tunis, Tunisia 3-8 November 2006.

Hanin Moez, Zaidi Ikram, Masmoudi Khaled. Molecular characterization of a wheat MAP kinase phosphatase (TMKP1). In the Proceedings of the International conference on Biosaline Agriculture and high salinity tolerance (pp40). Tunis, Tunisia 3-8 November 2006.

Khoudi habib, Nouri-Khemakhem Aïda, Masmoudi Khaled. Improvement of salt and drought tolerance of tomato. In the Proceedings of the International conference on Biosaline Agriculture and high salinity tolerance (pp105). Tunis, Tunisia 3-8 November 2006.

Khaled Masmoudi. Overexpression of genes encoding ion transport proteins (Na+/H+ antiporter and H+-Pyrophosphatase pump) as a strategy to improve salt-and drought tolerance in wheat and barley. International workshop on plant tolerance to abiotic stress. Santiago, Chile 19-21 Juin 2006.

Faïçal Brini, Imen Amara, Moez Hanin, Habib Khoudi, Aïda Nouri-Khemakhem, Montserrat Pagès, Gerald Berkowitz, Khaled Masmoudi. Overexpression of wheat Na+/H+ antiporter TNHX1 and H+-pyrophosphatase TVP1 improve salt and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Gordon Research Conference on Salt and water stress in plants. Oxford, United Kingdom, 3-8 September 2006.

Khaled Masmoudi. Enhancing drought/salinity tolerance of wheat varieties indigenous to North Africa. International workshop: Increasing tolerance to abiotic stress in plants “drought Stress”. Gent, Belgium 30-31 October 2006.

Brini F., Hanin M., Khemakhem A., Feki K., Ayadi M., Amara I., Khoudi H., Masmoudi K. Enhancing drought and salinity tolerance in wheat crop grown in the Mediterranean countries and private investment in agricultural research and development. Third Seminar on Biotechnology and its Applications in Arab Agricultural Investment, Amman, Jordan 21-24 May 2007.

Masmoudi K., Brini F., Hanin M., Khoudi H. Enhancing drought and salinity tolerance in wheat crop grown in the Mediterranean region. FAO/IAEA International Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants, 12-15 August 2008, Vienna. Austria.

 

Competitive External Research Grants:

1. Improvement of wheat tolerance to abiotic stress using genetic engineering tools. $ 10,000 Source: ALECSO. (1999-2000).

2. Improving salt tolerance of winter wheat in Tunisia. $ 85,000 Source: USDA. (2002-2004).

3. Study of the role of dehydrin in the response of plant to drought tolerance. € 30,000 Source: Spain agency of cooperation. (2003-2005)

4. Utilisation of nuclear techniques (22Na and 14C) to screen for salt and drought tolerance of transgenic tomato plants over expressing the Na+/H+ antiporter (TNHX1) and the vacuolar H+ pyrophosphatase (TVP1) isolated from wheat. $50,000 Source: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria. (2004-2009)

5. Overexpression of genes encoding ion transport proteins (Na+/H+ antiporter and H+-PPase) as a strategy to improve salt-and drought tolerance in wheat. € 60,000 Source: ICGEB-TWAS Joint Plant Biotechnology Programme. (2007-2009).

6. Functional characterization of a plasma membrane Na+/H+ transporter (SOS1) from wheat involved in salt tolerance. € 10,000 Source: Spain agency of cooperation. (2007)

7. Identification and characterization of interacting proteins with LEA and their regulation by phosphorylation. € 10,000 Source: Spain agency of cooperation. (2007).