The ability to detect and avoid vegetative shade confer significant selective advantage to plants. Many important light-signaling components regulate the shade avoidance response – for example phytochromes. We conducted expression analysis of phytochromes in pine (shade intolerant) and spruce (shade tolerant) under shade. Those studies revealed a differential mechanism in shade response in both coniferous species. Our next step is to test our hypotheses by conducting complementary studies in Arabidopsis mutants. This study involves applying State-of-the Art tools in Molecular Biology in Arabidopsis to test hypotheses generated in two coniferous species. This study is a collaboration between García-Gil´s team and Martínez-García team and it will be conducted (90% of the time) at the IBMCP-Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. https://ibmcp.upv.es/en/  Ready for the thrill of working at two leading Research Centers? If this has not yet convinced you, knowing that IBMCP is only 500m from the Mediterranean Sea may do the rest! Please do not hesitate to contact me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Jaume Martínez García (jaume.martinez@ibmcp.upv.es).