Researcher Etelvina Gándara Zamorano advances plant and fungal phylogenetics at BUAP

Etelvina Gándara Zamorano, a researcher at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), focuses on the historical‑evolutionary processes that shaped angiosperm and macrofungi taxa of biocultural importance. She integrates taxonomy, molecular systematics, phylogeography and genetics to map plant distribution, endemic species and diversity hotspots in Puebla, and constructs DNA‑based phylogenies to trace species origins and seed dispersal routes.

Gándara Zamorano also contributed to a project funded by Mexico’s Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación, collaborating with the Universidad Veracruzana and the Tecnológico Nacional de México (Boca del Río campus) on population genetics of Gulf of Mexico corals. She holds a biology degree from the Universidad de Guadalajara, completed her master’s and doctorate at the Instituto de Ecología, and received a UC MEXUS fellowship for a post‑doctoral stay at the University of California, Berkeley. She is classified as a Level II researcher in Mexico’s National System of Researchers.