Carina Gaggero, Ph.D.

Research

In the same way that not every human being is capable of becoming an Olympic champion, there are certain strains of yeast that are capable of successfully carrying out a fermentation process resulting in a wine with excellent sensory characteristics, and others that are not genetically suitable for this industrial use. Our group is focused on developing methods for the intraspecific genotyping of individual yeasts of oenological interest. The diversity of our heritage of native strains allows the selection of the fittest individuals and /or the more efficient enzymes to carry out industrial processes of interest. We are also interested in studying plant-pathogen interactions. We have chosen Physcomitrella patens as a plant model system to study plant defense responses. We are also focusing on microbial citrus diseases of economical impact.