Gaetano Distefano
03/07/2023
Gaetano Distefano is, since 2017, Associate Professor of Arboriculture and Fruitculture at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of Catania University. In 2000 he graduated in Agricultural Science at Catania University with full marks and laude; thereafter he passed the professional examinations for being agronomist.
In 2004 he earned a ph.D in "Productivity of cultivated plants" with a thesis on "Citrus genetic improvement through genetic transformation and identification of useful genes”. Since 2006 to 2017 he has been post-doc and researcher of Arboriculture and Fruitculture at Catania University.
During the 2006 he attained the master in Plant breeding at the Centre international de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM). He has research and teaching experience abroad and he participated to several research projects on fruit tree species. He has spent: 8 months at the ’Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Departemento de Pomologia, Saragozza, Spain; 5 months at the Centre for Genetic Analysis and Applications and School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Australia; 3 weeks as ‘Visiting professor’ at the National Center for Citrus Improvement (Changsha), Hunan Agricultural University, China; 5 months as ‘Visiting researcher’ at the Department of Biological & Medical Sciences Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
In 2012 he passed the National scientific qualification exams at the level of Associate Professor. In 2020 he passed the National scientific qualification exams at the level of Full Professor.
Since 2012 he is teaching “Fruit crop genetic improvement” for the second level degree course in Agricultural Biotechnology.
He was member of the teaching board of ph.D. Course in "Agricultural, Food And Environmental Science" - Catania University for the XXIX cycle.
He is member of the teaching board of ph.D. Course in “Biotechnology" at Catania University and he has been supervisor of several ph.D students.
He is member of Scientific and Organizing Committee for International Symposium Current Trends in Natural Sciences, May 19 – 21, 2022 University of Pitesti, Romania.
He is member of Scientific and Organizing Committee for International Citrus Congress, 6-12 November, 2022 Mersin, Turkey.
He co-founded the Spin-off ‘AgriUniTech’ private company for plant breeding services.
He is, currently, the Head of the Spin-off ‘AgriUniTech’ private company for plant breeding services.
He is, currently, the Head of the course Agricultural Biotechnology at the University of Catania.
He is constitutor of three seedless table grape varieties patent
Research projects
He is the work page scientific responsible for the project ‘Sviluppo di Induttori di Resistenza a Patogeni vascolari degli Agrumi (SIRPA) action PO FESR 1.1.5 2014-2020
He is the work page scientific responsible for the European project “Valorizing some pome and stone fruit germplasm variability to ensure resilience to climate change in the Mediterranean area”. Programma PRIMA 2021 Call: Section 2 Multitopics — Thematic Area 2-Farming systems, Topic 2.2 1
He has been and is actually involved, as participant in several research projects concerning different aspects of fruit tree crops and supported by several Italian and foreign Institutions.
-Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2002; Title: Trasformazione genetica di agrumi con il gene della partenocarpia DefH9-iaaM e suoi derivati
-Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2004; Title: Regolazione dello sviluppo dell'habitus vegetativo delle piante coltivate attraverso la trasformazione genetica: valutazione morfologica ed ecofisiologica di agrumi transgenici per i geni rol e phyB
-Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2005; Title: Controllo del processo produttivo delle piante da frutto mediante l'analisi dei sistemi di incompatibilità fiorale, lo studio dei determinanti pollinici e stilari e il ruolo delle proteine nella fecondazione
-Progetti di ricerca finanziati dalla Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología 2003- 2006; Title: Biología reproductiva de especies frutales. Optimización de estrategias naturales.
-Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2007; Title: Il processo produttivo delle piante arboree da frutto: aspetti molecolari, fisiologici ed agronomici dell'incompatibilità fiorale e strategie di controllo
-Progetti di ricerca finanziati dalla Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología 2007-2009 Title: Interacción polen-pistilo y regulación del cuajado en frutales
-Progetti di ricerca finanziati dalla Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología 2010-2012 Title: Desarrollo de flor y cuajado de fruto en frutales
- Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2015; Title: Investigating Self Incompatibility DEterminants in fruit trees (ISIDE)
Editorial activities
Associate editor for ‘Frontiers in Plant Science’ Open Access Journal by Frontiers Research Foundation
Associate editor for ‘Forests’ Open Access Journal by MDPI (ISSN 1999-4907) Scopus
Associate editor for ‘Crop Breeding, Genetics and Genomics’, CBGG, Qingres, 16 St Martin's le Grand, London, EC1A 4EN, United Kingdom.
Guest editor for the special issue “Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology” American Journal of Plant Biology (AJPB)
Guest editor for the special issue “Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Tree Crops Biodiversity” Forests (MDPI) 2021
Guest editor for the special issue “Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics of Fruit Crops” Agriculture (MDPI) 2022/2023
Academic Year 2021/2022
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT CROPS AND SUSTAINABLE BIOTECHNOLOGIES - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Territorial, environmental and landscape protection - 1st Year
Ornamental and landscape arboriculture - DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology - 2nd Year
MORFOFISIOLOGIA DELLE COLTURE ARBOREE E CARATTERIZZAZIONE E VALORIZZAZIONE DEL GERMOPLASMA ORTOFLORICOLO
Module Morpho-physiology of tree crop
Academic Year 2020/2021
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT CROPS AND SUSTAINABLE BIOTECHNOLOGIES - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Territorial, environmental and landscape protection - 1st Year
Ornamental and landscape arboriculture - DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology - 2nd Year
MORFOFISIOLOGIA DELLE COLTURE ARBOREE E CARATTERIZZAZIONE E VALORIZZAZIONE DEL GERMOPLASMA ORTOFLORICOLO
Module Morpho-physiology of tree crop
Academic Year 2019/2020
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT CROPS AND SUSTAINABLE BIOTECHNOLOGIES - DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology - 2nd Year
MORFOFISIOLOGIA DELLE COLTURE ARBOREE E CARATTERIZZAZIONE E VALORIZZAZIONE DEL GERMOPLASMA ORTOFLORICOLO
Module Morpho-physiology of tree crop
Academic Year 2018/2019
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT CROPS AND SUSTAINABLE BIOTECHNOLOGIES - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science and Technology - 3rd Year
ECOFISIOLOGY AND PLANT BREEDING IN FRUIT CROPS
Academic Year 2017/2018
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT AND NURSERY INDUSTRY IN FRUITCULTURE
Academic Year 2016/2017
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT AND NURSERY INDUSTRY IN FRUITCULTURE
Academic Year 2015/2016
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT
Master's Degree in Agricultural Biotechnology - 1st Year
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT AND NURSERY INDUSTRY IN FRUITCULTURE
Prof. Gaetano Distefano has been working on structural genomic and genetic transformation and on gene expression analysis mainly in Citrus species. He has worked in studies of phyletic relationship among Citrus species and related genera, and on molecular markers characterization of several fruit tree species (almond, carob, olive, pomegranate, pear, prickly pear, grape), developing new markers and new methods of analysis. He has also worked on traditional breeding programs for citrus and table grape supported by genetic and molecular information using Marker Assisted Selection (MAS), mutation scanning/SNPs analysis by High Resolution Melting (HRM) and in advances in DNA-derived data (Next Generation Sequencing –NGS) and innovative phenotyping in fruit tree crop selection in particular for citrus, almond and pear. Several studies have focused on gene identification and expression quantification in Citrus reproductive biology and fruit ripening. He has also a solid background in histology for flower biology and fruit quality traits evaluation.