Catalina Pinto
Mapping traits of agronomic interest in kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) and development of markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS)
Supervisor: Raffaele Testolin, University of Udine
Co-supervisor: Rodrigo Infante, University of Chile
Selection in kiwifruit breeding is still based on phenotypic observation of traits, but it should take great advantage from a selection based on molecular markers associated with traits of interest. Such a selection, popularly known as marker-assisted selection or MAS, could accelerate the screening of cross progeny.
Cultivars of the market belong to two closely related species (A. deliciosa and A. chinensis), sometimes merged in a single ‘complex’ for their taxonomic and molecular closeness. They can be hexaploid, tetraploid and, in few cases, diploid. This variation on the ploidy level makes trickier the genetic studies, but the solutions found to study the genetic control of traits of interest in diploid crosses and to transfer the results to polyploids.
Genomics and EST-derived SSR markers are available for kiwifruit and they led in the past to the production of several genetic maps with low saturation. The production of dense maps in kiwifruit and mapping quantitative and qualitative traits of interest for breeding is the aim of this PhD thesis.
Biography and contacts
Catalina Pinto was born in 1989 in Santiago-Chile. In 2011 graduated in Agriculture Science and in 2014 graduated in Fruit Production Master at University of Chile. In 2014 she started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agriculture Science and Biotechnology” at the University of Udine.