Mr Guillermo Perez

PhD Student

Research Interests

I was born on a farm in Uruguay, South America in 1978. I am not sure if I was born as a biologist or if it was the environment where I grew up which awakened my interest for nature.

I discovered the fungi’s world in 2001 when I started as an honorary assistant in the laboratory of Mycology in Facultad de Ciencias – Montevideo.

I got my BSc degree in 2004. The aim of my thesis was to construct a data base of the most important wood decay basidiomycetes species found in Eucalyptus logs using PCR-RFLPs.

In my master degree project I started to work with Inocutis jamaicensis one basidiomycete that causes important economical losses in Eucalyptus globulus plantations in Uruguay. In the course of the research we found I. jamaicensis colonizing the heartwood in the main stem and branches of Vitis vinifera in Mendoza – Argentina.
I. jamaicensis was also found in eight native species and four exotic plants in Uruguay including V. vinifera. So, my thesis was dealing with the genetic structure of  I. jamaicensis associated with E. globulus, V. vinifera and native plants.

I started my Ph.D. in FABI in January 2007.
New people, new cultures, new languages, and new life experiences, as well as a new pathogen were waiting for me in South Africa.

Currently, I am working with Teratosphaeria nubilosa, the most important pathogen causing Mycosphaerella leaf disease (MLD) in South Africa, mostly on Eucalyptus nitens.
Using microsatellite loci, I am investigating the population structure of T. nubilosa in different provinces of South Africa. I am particularly interested in the distribution of the genetic diversity on small scales. This includes the number of genotypes colonizing single lesions, the number of genotypes colonizing different lesions on the leaf lamina and the distribution of genotypes in the canopy of single trees. I want to investigate and answer some questions about the epidemiology and mating system of this pathogen.

Last December I went to Uruguay to collect samples of diseased Eucalyptus leaves showing symptoms of MLD. I want to know which species are causing MLD in that country and to understand the genetic structure of Uruguayan populations.

If you have further questions or you require more information, please do not hesitate to contact me on my e-mail address.

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