Team leader
Prof. Giannina Vizzotto, associate professor of pomology

Scientists and student tutors 
Dott. Rachele Falchi, post-doc

Research 

The primary objectives of the group are to investigate factors that regulate fruit growth and quality of tree fruit crops. Particularly, functional genomic techniques are adopted in the study of genes involved in sugar metabolism and transport during peach fruit development. The role of sugars as signaling molecules in assimilate partitioning, embryogenesis, and seed-mesocarp cross-talk is also taken into consideration, together with the interaction with other signal transduction pathways.
In addition, as growing evidence suggests that the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a role in fruit development, the effect of exogenous application of the growth regulator will be assessed on apple fruit quality traits, mainly as related to carbohydrate accumulation. Finally, attention is focused on the putative role of ABA in biotic stress signaling, in order to gain further insights in apple pathogen resistance (Venturia inaequalis).

Lab facilities 
Equipments for nucleic acids extraction and measurements
Real Time-PCR
Equipment for in situ analysis and fluorescence detection

Topics offered for thesis

• ABA signaling in disease resistance and quality of apple