1 In vitro propagation of the Amazonian medicinal plant guayusa (Ilex guayusa) and 1 effects of light in the growth and development of this shade tolerant plant 2 3 Sofia D. Carvalho a1 , Mayra Ortega a1 , Miguel Orellana a , Michelle Rodríguez a , Kevin M. Folta b, , Maria de Lourdes 4 Torres a* 5 6 a Laboratorio de Biotecnología Vegetal, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad San 7 Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador 8 b Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 9 10 1 Authors contributed equally to this work. 11 12 * Correspondence: 13 Maria de Lourdes Torres 14 E-mail: ltorres@usfq.edu.ec 15 Orcid-ID: 0001-7207-4568 16