Team leader
Prof. Raffele Testolin, professor of fruit science and genetic resources

Scientists and student tutors
Dott. Guido Cipriani, scientist
Dott. Rachele Messina, scientist
Dott. Orietta Lain, post-doc
Dott. Luigi Falginella, post-doc

Research

• Isolation of microsatellite DNA in fruit crops and their use in population genetics and forensic genotyping
• Molecular taxonomy in Actinidia
• Kiwifruit genetics and breeding (dioecy, genetic maps, breeding for novel fruit)
• Grape genetics and breeding (genetic map, mapping and cloning disease resistance genes, anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway, genetic determinants of aromatic profiles )
• Apple genetics and breeding (resistance genes and associated markers, breeding for novel fruit by combining disease resistance and fruit diversity)
• Kiwifruit crop science and management

Lab facilities
Molecular biology lab with PCR machines, automatic sequencer. The team has access to the labs of Istituto di Genomica Applicata (IGA, http://www.appliedgenomics.org/) for further facilities of sequencing and data analysis.
Field collection of germplasm and controlled cross populations of kiwifruit, grape, apple

Topics offered for thesis

• Analysis of genome structural variants in fruit crops by mapping reads of individual genomes produced through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms
• Comparative analysis and evolution of gametophytic self-incompatibility in Rosaceae
• Mapping gender and quantitative traits in kiwifruit
• Positional cloning of disease resistant genes in grape (in cooperation with the Viticulture team)
• Pyramiding resistance genes in apple