Toi Ketehouli

My name is Toi Ketehouli. I’m from Togo. I earned my BSc in Agronomy and Crop Sciences at Université de Lomé (Togo) and my MSc in Crop Biotechnology from the Engineering Research Center of the Chinese Ministry of Education for Bioreactor and Pharmaceutical Development, College of Life Sciences, Jilin Agricultural University (China). I joined Dr. Martin's lab in fall 2022 as a graduate research assistant. My research focuses on the impact of antibiotics on the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, plant physiology, metabolomics, and bacterial assemblages in citrus plant tissues. The U.S. citrus industry is at risk due to citrus greening disease caused by the uncultured bacterial pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. This disease has devastated Florida citrus in the last 16 years, considerably reducing productivity. As a result, citrus growers have been allowed since 2016 to use streptomycin and oxytetracycline antibiotics to overcome this disease. My study aims to replenish the function of the bacteria lost because of the antibiotic application and introduce biological control agents against citrus greening, thus reducing the need for antibiotic use.