PhD student Ricardo Alonso Echavarría Solana
Genome Evolution
Ricardo´s PhD research tests the hypothesis that hybridization between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. paradoxus might confer a thermotolerance advantage in mezcal fermentations. He characterized the high-temperature growth of 28 agave strains to select parents for de novo hybridization. The resulting hybrids and their parents will then undergo experimental evolution under a temperature gradient. An evolve-and-resequence approach will be used to identify the genetic basis of this thermal adaptation
