Luis Lopez-Zuniga

Former Graduate

  • Degree Program: Plant breeding Ph.D., Crop Science
  • Previous Degree: Agronomist
  • Advisor: Peter Balint-Kurti
  • Completion Date: July 2016

Research

The goal of my study is to identify loci and genes underlying elite levels of resistance observed in multiple disease resistance lines (MDR) in Maize by the creation of chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL) populations in which a whole-genome tiling path of introgressions from MDR lines is captured in MDS genomic backgrounds. For this, four top-ranking MDR lines (NC304, NC344, Ki3, and NC262) are being used as donor parents and two bottom-ranking MDS lines (Oh7B, H100) as recurrent parents to produce eight CSSL populations. Also, the reciprocal CSSL population between B73 and Mo17 is being made. Mo17 highly MDR and B73 are highly MDS; their wide use in maize genetics makes these populations quite desirable.