Dr. Ebenezer Antwi Gyamera

Dr. Ebenezer Antwi Gyamera is a plant virologist at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) since February, 2021. Currently, the bulk of his research at CRIG focuses on the cacao swollen shoot virus disease in cacao, particularly, finding new alternative hosts and vectors of the cacao virus unknown to science, and the discovery of pathogenic virus associations with previously undescribed virus disease-like symptoms in coffee plants. Prior to working at CRIG, Ebenezer studied for a PhD in Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK where his doctoral research focused largely on generating and analyzing double mutant plants and crosses in the Arabidopsis thaliana Argonuate 1 (ago1) mutation background. This was to test whether the lack of specific enzymes vital to the biosynthesis of salicylic acid and the 4-OH-ICN cyanogenic metabolite could affect the heightened defense against Myzus persicae in Arabidopsis ago1.25 mutant plants. Myzus persicae is the insect vector that transmits cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). In the next few years, Ebenezer will continue to research on both previously undescribed virus diseases and well-known virus diseases of economically important tropical crops in Africa.