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I am currently a postdoctoral researcher of the Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis (COMI) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. I started working at COMI in January 2018 in the frame of the SusAlps project. My current research focuses on the study of soil and rhizosphere microbiome and mycobiome dynamics in relation to microbial interactions, nutrient cycles, and agroecosystem management in order to disentangle the environment–microbe-plant interactions under climate change. The results and knowledge generated from my research support interdisciplinary strategies for the conservation of biome diversity and the ecological management of agroecosystems.

My previous postdoc research was focused on fungal priming by temporally limited stress conditions of extreme temperature which could prepare fungi to cope with a further stress factor if they are able to “remember” past events.

During my Ph.D., I worked with Ascomycota root endophytes e.g. dark septate endophytes (Leptodontidium orchidicola) and Piriformospora indica to study the outcome of their interactions with plant hosts and fungal pathogens as well as their capacity to use different phosphorous and nitrogen resources as symbionts and saprobes. These fungi showed varied fungal-plant interactions as well as different fungal phenotypes, growth and enzymatic activity according to the environmental conditions (host, substrate or abiotic factors). Therefore, fungi, especially facultative endophytes, are able to reprogram its growth and reproduction without genetic changes to face in a better way this new or different environment that could be detrimental for the organism under certain conditions. However, little knowledge is available on the responses of fungi to extreme conditions and even less known whether or not they are able to be primed after a first stimulus as it has already been shown for animals and plants.

Undergraduate studies

Bachelor of Science in Microbiology (1992), Los Andes University. Bogotá, Colombia

Master Science in Environmental Microbiology (1998), Los Andes University (Advisor: Dr. Jenny Dussan Garzón). Bogotá, Colombia.

Graduate Studies

Dr. rer. nat. (2011) University Potsdam (Advisors: Prof. Dr. Bernd Müller-Röber, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology - IBB and Dr. Prof. Philipp Franken, Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental crops – IGZ). Germany.

Postdoc

• Plant, fungal and soil ecology Lab. Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy. Free University; 2012-2017; Advisor: Prof. Dr. Mathias Rillig. Berlin, Germany.

• Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental crops – IGZ. Department of Plant nutrition; 2011-2012; Advisor: Prof. Dr. Philipp Franken. Großbeeren, Germany.