Fungal Metabolites for Agricultural Applications

Prof. Dr. Dr. Jorge Poveda works as a Professor in Genetics and Biotechnology at the Department of Plant Production and Forest Resources of University of Valladolid, Spain. He has a PhD in Agrobiotechnology and a PhD in Biosystems Engineering. He has extensive experience in the study of plant-endophyte fungal interaction, with numerous articles and reviews published in the last five years (Scopus: 62 papers). Regarding specifically the Trichoderma fungus, he has published articles that are referenced in the study of the Trichoderma-plant interaction, besides several highly cited reviews. In addition to endophytes and rhizospheric-endophytes fungi (such as Trichoderma), he has worked on their agricultural application with mycorrhizal fungi. In recent years, his research has addressed the relationship between plant and beneficial fungi from other approaches, such as metabolomics. In this sense, he has published several papers on the role of plant metabolites in plant-fungus symbiosis and on the production of metabolites of agricultural biotechnological interest by Trichoderma and even pathogenic fungi, such as Leptosphaeria maculans (with beneficial plant applications).

Prof. Dr. Óscar Santamaría works as a Professor in Agronomy and Forestry at the Department of Plant Production and Forest Resources of University of Valladolid, Spain. He is a Forest Engineer (PhD in Forest Pathology) with an interest in fungal endophytes and how they can be used as biocontrol agents against plant diseases or as plant growth promoting organisms in their hosts through the secondary metabolites they produce. Within this area, he has been involved as a researcher in more than 20 research projects, acting as the Principal Investigator in four of them. The scientific production derived from these projects can be summarized in 50 papers in JCR journals, mostly qualified in the first and second quartile of their expertise area and another 15 publications in technical journals of agriculture and livestock, book chapters and book editions.

Prof. Dr. Jorge Martín-García works as a Professor in Agronomy at the Department of Plant Production and Forest Resources of University of Valladolid, Spain. He has a Phd from the University of Valladolid (Spain) and INRA (France) and has been doubly awarded (Best PhD Awards from Spanish Society of Forest Science and from University of Valladolid). He has also completed three Masters in Bioinformatic and Biostatistic (UOC; 2018), Applied Statistics (UNED; 2013) and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (UVa; 2006). His research has been carried out in several leading laboratories working on metagenomic, transcriptomic, phytopathology and plant physiology, among other topics. This research was carried out as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Aveiro (Portugal, Awarded by a FCT fellowship), University of Aberdeen (UK, Awarded by a mobility fellowship) and UVa (Spain, Awarded by an attracting talent fellowship) and as a predoctoral at the LUKE (Finland), INRA (France), University of San Luis (Argentina) and University of Extremadura (Spain). He has lead and participated in more than 30 national and international research projects mainly focused on developing biocontrol or priming strategies based on the use of endophyte fungi. Furthermore, he has been involved in five COST Actions related to fungi, in which he has played a key role, acting as the Grant Holder Manager, Working Group leader or MC member. To date, he has published 58 peer-reviewed articles in JCR journals and several book chapters and is the editor of 3 books. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Plant Pathology and Guest Editor for Forests. Beyond the awards received by his PhD, Jorge Martín has also received other awards for his research advances like the "Excellence, entrepreneurship and innovation Award" by IMFAHE Foundation (Boston, Massachusetts) and First Award I+D+i Generation of wealth in rural areas by Palencia Provincial Council.