Title: Biochemical, metabolic and molecular characterization of pear-apple hybrids.

Supervisor: Dr Mickael Arnaud Malnoy (FEM)

Apple and pear are economically important fruit crops well known for their unique textures, flavours and nutritional qualities. Both genera are characterised by a specific pattern of secondary metabolites which directly affect not only the resistance or susceptibility towards certain diseases, but also have significant impact on flavour and nutritional value of the fruits. The identical chromosome number, similar genome size, their supposed recent divergence date, together with DNA-marker analysis has led to the assumption that their genomes might be highly co-linear. Recent intergeneric F1 hybrids between apple and pear provide a unique germplasm resource not only for genomic, transcriptomic and metabolic profiling studies, but also for applying advanced breeding strategies.

Further putative hybrids involving apple rootstocks exist in tissue culture and are available to the PhD project, as well as ‘Fast Flowering’ apple and pear plants to advance breeding generations rapidly.

Using information derived from the recent apple and pear joint genome projects between Edmund Mach Foundation (Trento) and Plant & Food Research (Palmerston-North, NZ), this PhD project will utilize comparative genomic approaches to identify the genetic differences among the putative hybrids and its offspring. Furthermore, the PhD will describe the genus-specific metabolite pattern found in these plants. The use of genomics and other -omics technologies (metabolomics, transcriptomics) will provide insight into the genetic reorganization of the hybrids, enhance and accelerate the breeding process for the development of superior crops for producers and consumers, by introducing desired traits from the pear gene pool into apple and vice versa.

Biography and contacts

Giulia Pasqualetto was born in 1992 in Buti (PI), Italy. In 2014 she obtained the bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science (102/110) at the University of Pisa. Here, in 2016, she also achieved the master’s degree in Agrifood production and agroecosystem management (110/110 cum laude). In October 2017 she won a PhD position at the University of Udine and she is currently carrying this project in the laboratory of Genomics and Advanced Biology unit at Edmund Mach Foundation in San Michele all’Adige (TN).

giulia.pasqualetto@guests.fmach.it

pasqualetto.giulia@spes.uniud.it

[+39 3288094278]