Research interests:
With global population growth and a desire for agriculture with less environmental impact, the demands of maize production are ever increasing. Breeders play a critical role in developing new germplasm that can fulfill the need for increased production, but in a more environmentally sustainable and secure way. My main purpose is to really understand how genome is manipulated through breeding and finish with the “black box” that the breeding programs have traditionally been. If you can write a book of instructions you will be able to make it work!
To achieve this, I plan to use the newest molecular and statistical techniques that allow me to take the most from the centuries of work that farmers and breeders have done and from what has been conserved through populations and inbred lines in the germplasm banks around the world. At the same time, I would like to provide the farmers new improved materials that they can grow to cover their particular demands.
I work with maize because it is an amazing plant. It is one of the most significant crops in the world, as it is a basic part of the human and animal diet and is used by industries for fuel production and well as fiber or starch supply. But, it is also a key plant for the scientific community where is has been a model to study genetics, evolution and domestication for many years. Moreover, its genome is fun: big, crazy and more diverse than any other model plant!
Research lines:
My main research lines are related with quantitative genetics, maize diversity and heterosis. Currently, my projects are:
1. Unraveling a flowering time QTL in Chr. 8:
Using the Nested Association Mapping population (NAM) we identified a QTL controlling flowering time in a region in Chr. 8. The study found the presence of an allelic series for the QTL, suggesting a model of common genes with uncommon variants.
Two flowering time related QTLs, Vgt1 and Vgt2, have already been identified in the region by previous works and a MITE present in northern flint germplasm has been associated with early flowering time (Salvi et al., 2007). Our study confirmed the association between the MITE allele and early flowering, and it is possible that both previously described QTLs could be contributing to the effects detected. At this point our main question is:
Different effects… Different genes? Different functional alleles? Both?
Estimated days to silking effects with standard errors for the Chr 8 region relative to B73 allele (Buckler et al.,2009)
2. Characterization and study of maize diversity through low-cost, high-throughput sequencing technologies
For this project, I am using GBS to genotype thousands of inbred lines selected from breeding programs all around the world. The data generated by the GBS method produces hundreds of thousands of markers across the entire genome.
The analysis of this data will give us interesting insights about the history of maize breeding around the world, the different levels of diversity by country or heterotic group, the specific mechanisms of maize adaptation to temperate climates, etc.
For example, using the SNPs obtained from the GBS pipeline we are able to recreate the pedigree structure of some ex-PVP inbreds and their relations with some of the commonly used inbreds from the public sector.
3. Study of the genetic basis of heterosis
To complement another research project that Sara Larsson is developing in our lab and in collaboration with the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station of Ames (Iowa), we are planning on growing an association panel of lines from all around the world crossed with two different testers representing the main heterotic groups: Stiff Stalk and Non Stiff Stalk.
This material will help us to understand the phenomena of heterosis, significantly responsible for the increase in crop yield after the green revolution. Is it caused by dominance, overdominance, pseudo-overdominance? How important are GxE interactions? ...
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Post-Doctoral Researcher