(Humacao, P.R.) - Dr. Raymond Tremblay, professor of the Department of Biology of the UPRH and faculty of the Department of Biology of the UPR-RP Graduate School, participated in the VII International Congress of Comparative Biology of Monocotyledons (MONOCOTS) in San José, Costa Rica. The congress had a duration of five days of conferences, including a poster session of approximately 50 people and more than 200 international participants.

MONOCOTS is one of the most prestigious botanical conferences that attracts researchers and students from all over the world. Topics covered include conservation, taxonomy, systematics, pollination, genetics, genomics, evolution, ecology and physiology of monocotyledonous plants, among others. Presentations at this seventh congress offered advances in the study and techniques that include more than 70,000 plant species.  Monocotyledonous plants are a group of plants that includes a great diversity with economic importance, such as sugar cane, wheat and corn (of the grass family), palm and many ornamental groups such as orchids.

At the Congress, Dr. Tremblay and Dr. J. D. Ackerman presented their new hypotheses of what ecological, orographic and population variables influence the process of formation of new species of orchids. 

“This plant family (orchids) is one of the most diverse of all plant families, and the main question is what makes this family have so many species compared to other plant families?” he asked. Dr. Ackerman and I have been researching and developing publications with new ideas around this question for 25 years,” said Dr. Tremblay.

Dr. Tremblay said that attending the Congress was a great opportunity to learn from colleagues about technological advances and diverse ideas in biology about this group of plants (orchids), and comments that “what fascinated me the most was being able to talk to young scientists, both undergraduate, graduate, and young scientists and see their enthusiasm to expand their knowledge”.

To learn about Dr. Tremblay's publications, you can access the following link https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Raymond-Tremblay .

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