María José Grajal Martín

Dr. María José Grajal Martín obtained her Ph.D. at WSU, Washington State University, in the USA in 1992. She was incorporated into the Canary Institute of Agrarian Research (ICIA) in January 1993 where she continued to develop her research in the areas of Plant Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources mainly in Tropical and Subtropical Fruits. The beginnings of her research career were linked to the genetic breeding of grain legumes, where she worked in the location some of the genes of resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f.sp pisi. by means of molecular markers. Once incorporated to the Canary Institute of Agrarian Research (ICIA) in January 1993, she started to work with Tropical and subtropical species.

She contributed to the identification of somaclonal variants of height in banana by means of morphological and molecular markers that were a serious problem for the massive propagation of the banana in the earlies 90´s. In the field of plant genetic breeding she has been developed a mango breeding program, for the selection of cultivars adapted to the subtropical conditions of the Canary Islands with good morphological and organoleptic characteristics. As a result of this work, two “cultivars” have been selected. In addition, she has developed tetraploids from polyembryonic cultivars, which are being evaluated and have new possibilities in the improvement of this species.

Likewise, she has started a passion fruit breeding program that will allow her to develop the cultivation of this fruit in the Canary Islands with a good quality and homogenous material. In the field of phytogenetic resources, she is in charge of the banana and mango germplasm collection at the ICIA. She has participated as a guest, speaker, or as an organizer in numerous events (Congresses, seminars, technical conferences, courses) in tropical fruits. She has been a member of the ICIA the scientific commission.