Professional Information

Researcher

Since 2010 performs a doctorate in Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Manitoba, in Canada, under the guidance of Dr. Silvie Cloutier.

Professional title

Forest engineer, 2001. Universidad Catolica de Temuco.

Academic degree

Graduate in Forest Sciences, 2001. Universidad Catolica de Temuco.M.S. Molecular Genetics, 2005. Universidad Austral de Chile. Institute of Ecology and Evolution.

Research interest

Since the increased global demand for fish oil and its higher price for fish and animal feeding, it is an urgent need to count with other alternatives such as vegetal oil for partially replaces it. Furthermore, sedentary lifestyle threats with increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and obesity.

Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) amongst its benefits is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acid (≈ 55%) required for the development of balanced diets as well as a rich source of soluble fiber. As a consequence, the daily intake of flaxseed by humans has beneficial effects in preventing cardiovascular diseases and for combating overweight.

Through the application of genomics tools, I will identify agronomic and nutritional traits in flaxseed. The identification of the genetic variability underlying these traits as well as the understanding of their genetic control will enable the development of well adapted new flaxseed varieties which meet the quality standards currently required by the Agri-food industry.

Publications

Soto-Cerda BJ, Diederichsen A, Ragupathy R, and Cloutier S. (2013)  Genetic characterization of a core collection of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) suitable for association mapping studies and evidence of divergent selection between fiber and linseed types. BMC Plant Biology 13:78  doi:10.1186/1471-2229-13-78

Soto-Cerda BJ, Peñaloza E, Montenegro A, Rupayán A, Gallardo M, Salvo-Garrido H. (2013) An efficient marker-assisted backcrossing strategy for enhancing barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) production under acidity and aluminium toxicity. Molecular Breeding. doi 10.1007/s11032-013-9839-7

Soto-Cerda BJ, Cloutier S. (2013). Outlier Loci and Selection Signatures of Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) in Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.). Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. doi 10.1007/s11105-013-0568-1.

Soto-Cerda BJ, Cloutier S. (2012). Association mapping in plant genomes In: Genetic Diversity, Mahmut Çalişkan, (Ed.), 1-26, InTech, ISBN 978-953-307-1250-1. doi 10.5772/33005.

Soto-Cerda BJ, Maureira-Butler I, Munoz G, Rupayan A, Cloutier S. (2012). SSR-based population structure, molecular diversity and linkage disequilibrium analysis of a collection of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) varying for mucilage seed-coat content. Molecular Breeding. doi: 10.1007/s11032-011-9670-y

Soto-Cerda BJ, Urbina H, Navarro C, Mora P. (2011). Characterization of novel genic SSR markers in Linum usitatissimum (L.) and their transferability across eleven Linum species". Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. doi: 10.2225/vol14-issue2-fulltext-6.

Soto-Cerda BJ, Carrasco RA, Aravena GA, Urbina HA, Navarro CS. (2011). Identifying novel polymorphic microsatellites from cultivated flax (Linum ussitatisimum L.) following data mining. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 29(3):753?759. doi: 10.1007/s11105-010-0270-5.

Inostroza-Blancheteau C, Soto B, Ibáñez C, Ulloa P, Aquea F, Arce-Johnson P, Reyes-Diaz M. (2010). Mapping aluminum tolerance loci in cereals: A tool available for crop breeding. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology doi: 10.2225/vol13-issue4-fulltext-4.

Zúñiga J, Soto B, Campos H. (2008). Using a gel-free PCR-ELISA for the molecular identification of wheat genotypes carrying wheat-rye translocations. Plant Breeding 127(1): 15-19. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0523.2007.01377.x

Inostroza-Blancheteau C, Soto B, Ulloa P, Aquea F, Reyes-Diaz M. (2008). Resistance mechanisms of aluminum (Al3+) fitotoxicity in cereals: physiological, genetic and molecular bases. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 8(3) 57-71.