INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

Università degli Studi della Basilicata

Università degli Studi della Basilicata (UNIBAS) is an Italian public research university located in Potenza and Matera. It was founded in 1981 and started its academic activities in 1982. It is a small but dynamic academic reality with its scientific and arts vocation. UNIBAS comprises more than 7.300 students, 311 Professors and Researcher and 275 Technical and administrative staff. The didactic and research activities at UNIBAS is carried out by six leading structures, four Departments and two Schools, where all the degree programmes, which make up its educational offer, are merged. Among the two schools the Schools of Agricultural, Forestry and Environmental Sciences (SAFE), is the one involved in this project. The school has a wide experience in plant breeding, agronomy and crop protection, having the necessary infrastructure for plant research as well as wide cooperation with national and international stake holders. SAFE is part of the Italian Plant Phenotyping Network - PHEN-ITALY Platform. The Plant Genetics Research group consists of one Full Professor, two Researchers, one Post-doc and one Technician. The Plant Genetics Research group has a solid experience in the study, collection, conservation and utilisation of agricultural genetic resources with particular attention to the evolution and adaptation of the cultivated species and to the study of the genetic structure of populations through the application and integration of genomic and transcriptomic technologies.

Role within INCREASE

The Plant Genetics Research group of UNIBAS is crop leader for lentil and supervises all the activities regarding lentil. It is involved in all the work packages of the project.

Based on its long-term expertise in grain legumes genetic resources, UNIBAS contributes to work package 2 on trait definition and to wprk package 3 for germplasm sampling and development of intelligent nested-core collections. In work package 3, UNIBAS is responsible for the entire Task 3.2, concerning the development of genetically purified accessions and DNA extraction of each four species. Within Task 3.3 and task 3.4, UNBAS manages the seed increase and the phenotypic characterisation of lentils T-CORE and H-CORE. UNIBAS is also involved in the primary and secondary seed increase of common bean and chickpeas.

Thanks to its skill in plant phenotyping, UNIBAS is involved in work package 4 activities, where it leads the Tasks 4.2 - in which classical and high through-put phenotyping and image analysis will be applied to the intelligent collections.

UNIBAS participates also in work packages 5 and 6 via data analyses of lentils and germplasm management.

And finally, UNIBAS participates in all the training and dissemination activities of the project within work packages 1 and 7.

Main contacts

Photo of Dr Tania Gioia
Dr Tania Gioia
Crop Leader
Photo of Dr Giuseppina Logozzo
Dr Giuseppina Logozzo
Team Member
Photo of Dr Stefania Marzario
Dr Stefania Marzario
Team Member
Photo of Antonio Latorraca
Antonio Latorraca
Team Member
Photo of Rita Sica
Rita Sica
Team Member
Photo of Mario Antonio Galante
Mario Antonio Galante
Team Member