Characterization of the Tomato Virome

Mark Paul Selda / NIB

Mark Paul Selda Rivarez

As a young plant pathologist, I am driven to promote plant health by protecting crops from emerging pathogens using ecological surveillance by high throughput sequencing (HTS). The INEXTVIR project will help us understand the evolution and movement of viruses has a direct impact on how we formulate policies for plant quarantine and trade that ultimately assure food sustainability.

Profile

During my undergrad at the University of the Philippines, I studied responses of rice in single and mixed infection of the RTBV and RTSV at the International Rice Research Institute. Thereafter, I worked as an instructor at thesame university where I also worked pro bono to develop methods for pathogen detection in rice seeds and undertook basic and applied research in fungal plant pathology and biological control. For my MSc, I studied resistance mechanisms of papaya against bacterial crown rot. My European research stint started at the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I²SysBio) in Spain, where we used genomics to uncover genes in Arabidopsis that drives adaptation of turnip mosaic potyvirus in new host ecotypes.

Science is in my blood, but after long hours in the lab and greenhouse, I play badminton and go to the gym (almost every day!). I also enjoy hiking during holidays. During lazy weekends, I enjoy casually sharing ideas with others over coffee, tea or dinner.