About

I’m a Mexican Ph.D. student devoted to understanding the physiological and morphological root adaptations along the domestication and dispersion of maize and wheat. I use greenhouse, field, and modeling approaches to study the role of root anatomy, architecture, and physiology in the adaptation to abiotic stress.

Sampling Wheat roots at CIMMYT Obregon Station 2023

I’m doing my doctoral thesis under the mentorship of Jonathan Lynch at Pennsylvania State University where we implement high-throughput phenotyping of root systems to capture the variation of root phenes (most elemental components of the phenotype), their interactions, and functions under abiotic stress.

Sampling maize roots at Penn State Greenhouse 2021

Last year I shared advances of my project related with the local adaptation of root traits to arid and humid soils at the ASA, CSSA & SSSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

Poster sesion at ASA, CSSA & SSSA Annual Meeting 2022

Before coming to Penn State University I studied a master degree in Plant Biotechnology at LANGEBIO Cinvestav where I characterized the root anatomy and architecture of 5000-year-old maize specimens coming from the San Marcos cave at Tehuacan Valley. I performed this research at Paleogenomics Lab and Apomixis Lab at LANGEBIO, and in collaboration with the Roots Lab at Penn State University. We found evidences that the root traits were domesticated gradually in maize. Further information can be found here. I was so fortunate to share my master thesis work at “Sexto Congreso Internacional El patrimonio Cultural y las nuevas tecnologias” where I talked in detail about how root traits were affected gradually during the domestication of maize.

Master thesis defense at CINVESTAV-Langebio auditorium and oral presentation in Sexto Congreso Internacional El Patrimonio Cultural y las nuevas tecnologias. 2019