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About me...
I obtained my bachelor’s degree at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEMex), my thesis was about the anatomy, morphology, and ultrastructure of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) of Opuntia robusta. Within this topic, I conducted a research internship at the Colegio de Postgraduados (COLPOS, Texcoco) in the Electronic Microscopy Unit, where I learned different techniques of light, scanning electron, transmission electron microscopy applied to plant tissues. This research got me specifically interested in EFNs and the intriguing association with ants. It turned out that little was known about structure and function of EFNs in cacti.
In 2017, I received funding from the Cactus and Succulents Society of America, USA, to carry out the project entitled “Morphological and ultrastructural characterization of EFNs from two cacti in Tehuacan-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico”, in which I analyzed the morphology, ultrastructure and function of EFNs of two cacti species. Building on these studies and on my growing interest in structure-function relationships, during my studies towards as Master of Science degree at the Instituto de Ecologia A.C. (INECOL, México) I decided to explore the effect of extrafloral nectar-feeding ants on herbivory, growth, and survival of young tissues of Opuntia robusta between different sexual phenotypes. Within this project I found sex-related differences in the outcome of ant-plant interactions, and learned about plant defenses, and their costs for plants, whose publication is in process. Moreover, I have been working on pollinator-plant interactions in two projects in Mexico and USA.
Currently, I am a PhD Student in Dr. Kessler lab at Cornell University. I'm broadly interested in understanding the ecological and evolutionary implications of plant defenses in the Mimosa genus. I am a committee member with editorial duties at EcoEvoRxiv, a not-for-profit subject-matter specific research repository for works related to ecology, evolution and conservation.
You can find more information about my background in my CV.