Maria Eugenia dos Santos Nunes
Assistant Professor
The main research targets are genotyping germplasm collections and tagging desirable agronomic traits of crop plants. In the case of legumes, selection for cold resistance in Trifolium hirtum, (Nunes and Smith, 2004a,b) and selection for high yield cultivars of Trifolium pratense to be used in rotation with Lolium multiflorum in the region of Entre-Douro-e-Minho.
A molecular analysis of the populations used in the breeding program is in process using chloroplastidial DNA markers. Phylogenetic study of forage legumes in Portugal. In Vitis vinifera the objective is to explain the phenotipic variation found in the 200 selected clones of Touriga Nacional using molecular markers. Previously StS-CHS markers were used for clone discrimination and presently AFLP markers, ISSR and TRAP techniques will be used to identify genes linked to the desirable agronomic characteristics. The evaluation of Portuguese garlic populations using AFLP and ITS markers is in process as well as the quantification of alicin constitutes as well one of my research interests.