SECTION B: LIFE SCIENCES
B.Sc. in Engineering in Agribusiness and Chemistry, Universidad San Francisco de Quito. M.Sc. in Plant Breeding and Genetic Resource Management, Wageningen University (The Netherlands). Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Biology at the renowned Utrecht University (Netherlands). His work experience began in Ecuador in 1997 as a laboratory assistant for the physical-chemical analysis of soils. In the field he developed his experience in flower plantations as head of postharvest of roses, head of production of summer flowers, Asian and oriental lilies, head of the department of breeding of color cartridges (Zantedeschia), and as a researcher at Leiden University, Holland , Gent University, Belgium, and at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. He is a professor at the ESP Army Polytechnic School, Central University of Ecuador, Utrecht University of the Netherlands, and currently as a Research Professor in the Agronomy career where he teaches on Biotechnology, Plant Physiology, Floriculture, Postharvest Management and Agricultural Microbiology. He has participated in important conferences such as the APS (American Phytopathological Society) in the United States, and conferences and presentations in Scotland, Australia, China, Holland, Germany, Ecuador, Belgium, England, among others. He has published for international and national media. His lines of research are the strengthening of the plant immune system through the use of resistance inducers and adequate mineral nutrition of the base to raise plant self-defense. There are several classes and types of resistance inducers, but unfortunately very few have been characterized and investigated according to their metabolic response and their protection time / duration against biotic or abiotic stress. Plant immunity elements and resistance inducers used in various crops, as well as studies on how nutrition influences plant defense will be important for the development of strategies for the control of pests and diseases. He has published in numerous high impact factor international journals such as Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Nature Chemical Biology, Annual review of Cell and Developmental Biology, MPMI, Planta, etc.
Engineer in Biotechnological Processes and Master in Microbiology from Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). PhD candidate in Environmental Biology at Utrecht University (Netherlands) in the Plant-Microbe Interaction research group. He is currently a research associate in the Department of Microbiome Ecology at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), the Department of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Laboratory of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology of the San Francisco de Quito USFQ. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which plants recruit microorganisms and how the composition of the microbiome can alter the phenotype of the plant, especially for resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses.
We describe the bacterial and fungal microbiome of the banana (Musa x paradisiaca) leaf in healthy and necrotic phases of Black Sigatoka or black leaf streak disease (Pseudocercospora fijiensis), evaluated under organic and conventional agronomic management in El Oro province, Ecuador. Samples were collected for subsequent DNA sequencing and analysis of the 16S (V3-V4) and ITS markers. This study suggests that the fungal microbiome from the organic farming system decreases its diversity due to pathogen's presence while diversity increases upon conventional practices. Also, we observed that bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas fluorescens was more abundant in the healthy organic leaf, a known beneficial microorganism for plants. The banana"™s phyllosphere endophyte microbiome depends on the cultivation system, and diseased conditions significantly change the microbiome in the presence of black leaf streak disease.
Key words: necrotic, sequencing, diversity, ASV, phyllosphere
viewed = 829 times