Current Research - Improving blueberry firmness via gene editing and genomics research (PhD)

(University of Florida - 2016 to present)

 

Blueberries are well known for their health-promoting properties and fantastic taste. The US blueberry industry is however facing a major challenge: extremely expensive and scarce labor (which can account for 50-90% of the total production cost!). Machine harvesting blueberries can significantly decrease the costs and increase efficiency but it requires blueberry varieties with very firm berries. My PhD project aims at supporting the release of such improved varieties using an inter-disciplinary approach. My current research combines traditional breeding, genomics and cutting-edge molecular biology to tackle the challenges that the blueberry industry is facing. 

 

Among the tangible outputs of my research are: numerous candidate genes for machine-harvest related traits, improved tissue culture protocols, improved transformation assays and deeper knowledge scientific complexity of blueberry.

 

 


Evolution of direct and indirect defences against pests  across continents: European and American mustard plants

 

(UC Davis - Wageningen University - 2015)

 

The black mustard plant, Brassica nigra, is native to Europe and invasive in the American continent. The cabbage white butterflies (Pieris species) migrated across the continents too and, in both the locations, oviposit and feed on these plants. In this case we studied how plants react to oviposition in the two areas triggering necrosis and attracting parasistic wasps thanks to odorous cues. Our findings suggest that direct defenses have been preserved while the association with parasitic wasps might have been lost in the invaded milieu due to evolutionary constraints.

 

 

 


Remote sensing of fertilization regime and two-spotted spider mite infestations in soy bean plants

(University of California, Davis - 2015)

 

Agriculture is facing new challanges: drought and nutrient limitations are likely to threaten cultivations in the near future.  However, new tools are being developed to aid growers maximize the impact of their efforts, i.e. hyperspectral cameras for precision agriculture. In this project we investigated how different levels of fertilization and infestation of a devastating pest (two-spotted spider mites) can alter the hyperspectral profiles of soy bean plants. The great challange with this kind of data set is that every single picture is translated into an excel table containing hundreds of values per point. Hence, finding and choosing the values that are the most useful for a certain purpose can be laborious and requires a wide range of statistical analyses.  Learning algorithms (e.g. Artificial Neural Networks) were applied to various data sets to prove that hyperspectral cameras are a valuable tool for precision farming. 

 

 

 

 


 

Multi-herbivore colonisation of A. thaliana and subsequent effects on the attraction of a parasitic wasp mediated by volatiles

(Wageningen University - 2014)

 

In this study we researched how different densities of certain pests  (caterpillars and aphids) can affect gene expression (RT-PCRs) and emission of volatile molecules (GM-MS) in Arabidopsis. We found that aphids seem to alter plant defenses directed against caterpillars interfering in the JA-SA hormonic crosstalks. We also highlighted repercussions of these interactions on a higher trophic level: the parasitic wasp Diadegma semiclausum, which uses odorous cues emitted by the plant to locate its host Plutella xylostella, shows altered choice patterns when presented with volatiles of plants under attack by caterpillars and different densities of aphids. Our finding suggest that seasonality and pre-existing conditions are likely to impact the outcome of pest-control strategies based on predator and parasitoid arthropods.

 

 

 


Development of molecular markers linked to brown spot disease in pear (University of Bologna - 2013)

 

This project aimed at developing ready-to-use SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) markers to identify pear individuals who can resist the aggressive infection of Stemphylium vesicarium, a fungus that can devastate pear orchards. Abbé Fétel is a highly susceptible cultivar while Max Red Bartlett is a resistant one. The F1 obtained crossing these two populations was used to study segregation of these traits. We successfully identified putative QTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci) linked to resistance and susceptibility in pear and found SSR and AFLP markers that segregate along them. The markers we tested will soon be fully available to genetic improvement programs.