Staff Profiles

Augusto Becerra Lopez-Lavalle

Post Doctoral Research Fellow
Ph.D., Sydney University, Australia, 2002
M.Sc., 1995 Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University
B.Sc., 1991 Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University

Phone (+61) 02 6246 4984
Fax: (+61) 02 6246 5000

E-mail: Augusto.BecerraLopez-Lavalle@csiro.au

Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research
CSIRO Plant Industry
GPO Box 1600
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA

My primary research interest is in understanding the genetic control of Fusarium wilt (Fov) disease resistance in cotton, which often have quantitative expression. Cotton has a significant economic and environmental importance, and a remarkable polyploid evolution. Current genetic studies indicate that genetic diversity among elite cotton cultivars is low, reflecting the extreme and repeated genetic bottlenecks cotton underwent during domestication. Thus, the variability needed to continue enhancing current cultivated cotton varieties, for yield or pest resistance, is becoming rarer. Novel germplasm resources are required to fill the voids in current commercial cotton breeding populations and enhance the progress of cultivated cotton germplasm utilisation. Primary germplasm pools represent the most readily accessible source of new alleles for crop improvement, but when the most effective alleles are not available in the primary germplasm pool, breeders must confront the difficulties associated with introgressing genes from the secondary and tertiary germplasm pools, in cotton, by using synthetic polyploids as introgression bridges. I use alien chromosome addition aneuploid mapping to determine alien linkage groups controlling traits of interest, their effect and distribution in the alien chromosome addition aneuploid lines genome. However, to be able to compare genetic maps between and even within wild species the comparative genetic maps should be developed. My major objective is to produce comparative genetic maps using AFLP genetic markers.

• Becerra-Lopez Lavalle LA and G Orjeda. 2002. Occurrence and Cytological Mechanism of 2n Pollen Formation in a Tetrapliod Accession of Ipomoea batatas (Sweet Potato) (In Press, Journal of Heredity).

• Becerra-Lopez Lavalle LA, JA Saleeba and BR Lyon. Molecular Identification and Classification of fungi isolated from stem tissue of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) (In preparation).

• Lyon BR, and LA Becerra-Lopez Lavalle. 2000. Molecular diagnosis of fungal pathogens in cotton. Proceedings of the 10th Australian Cotton Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

• Lyon BR, M Akbari, LA Becerra-Lopez Lavalle, AE Cook, S Kailasapillai, and KJ Lyon. 2000. DNA markers for resistance to fungal diseases in cotton. Proceedings of the 10th Australian Cotton Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

• Bruce R Lyon and Augusto Becerra-Lopez Lavalle. 2000. Fast, accurate diagnosis of cotton fungal pathogens. Australian Cotton Growers. January – February: 24-28.

• Becerra-Lopez Lavalle LA and BR Lyon. 2000. Molecular Genetic Markers for Accelerated Selection of Fusarium Wilt-Resistant Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). Poster session, Plant and Animal Genome VIII Conference, San Diego, USA.

• Mona Akbari, Raja Kota, Augusto Becerra-Lopez Lavalle, and Bruce R. Lyon. 1998. Verticillium and Fusarium wilt of cotton: Molecular genetic markers for disease resistance. Proceeding of the 9th Australian Cotton Conference, Broadbeach, Australia.

• Mona Akbari, Raja Kota, Augusto Becerra-Lopez Lavalle, and Bruce R. Lyon. 1998. Verticillium and Fusarium wilt of cotton: Molecular genetic markers for disease resistance. Poster session, 9th Australian Cotton Conference, Broadbeach, Australia.

• Becerra-Lopez Lavalle A, Zhu Y and BR Lyon. 1996. Verticillium and Fusarium wilt in cotton: Rapid assays for the identification of disease resistant plants. Poster session. The 8th Australian Cotton Conference, Broadbeach, Australia

Fusarium spp. and Australian Native Cottons
Resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum
Cotton Genome Mapping