Curriculum vitae

Raffaele Testolin

Present address

Department of Agricultural, Food, Animal and Environmental Sciences,University of Udine

(Dipartimento di Scienze Agroalimentari, Ambientali e Animali, Università di Udine)

Phone (+39) 0432 558632

Fax (+39) 0432 558603

e-mail ,

Present position

Professor of ‘Fruit Science’ and ‘Genetic resources in agriculture’, University of Udine, Italy

Education and academic career

Carrier. 1977 Master (Laurea) in Agriculture (Field & Horticultural Crops)at University of Padova; 1978-81 EC fellowship at the Dept of Agronomy, University of Padova; 1981 Research Scientist, University of Padova; 1981 Assistant Professor of Fruit Science, University of Udine; 1992 Associate Professor of Fruit Science, University of Udine; 2000 Professor of Fruit Science, University of Udine (present position).

Teaching.Fruit science at University of Udine (2001-), Fruit Genetics and Breeding at University of Bologna (1995-98),Grape Genetics and Breeding atUniversity of Udine (2001-04),Biotechnology applied to fruit crops (2004-10), Genetic Resources in Agriculture at University of Udine (2008-), Grape genetics and breeding at the Vinifera Master, Montpellier F (2015-)

Academic services. Has served at University of Udine as member of the Board of Directors, member of Academic Senate, head of Department, director of the Doctorate School of Agricultural Science and Biotechnology, president of the IPR and Patents Commission, Coordinator of the School of Agriculture, director of the University agricultural experimental farm (current position)

Extra academic activities

Founder and president of Applied Genomic Institute (

Member of International and National panels of experts for the evaluation of research project and Institutions.

Member of the Board of Editors of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395; CODEN: ABSGGL).

Ad hoc referee of 30+ international scientific journals in the field of molecular genetics, breeding and horticulture.

Affiliations

Member of the Italian Horticultural Society (Società Orticola Italiana, SOI, since 1983), Member of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) (since 1985), Member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) (since 1995), Member of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology (ISPMB) (since 1995), Member of the Italian Society of Crop Genetics (Società Italiana di Genetica Agraria, SIGA, since 2000), Member of the Eucarpia-Fruit Breeding (since 2001), Member of EUFRIN-Biotech (since 2005), Founder and President of the Istituto di Genomica Applicata (Institute of Applied Genomics, IGA, since 2006, see at the URL member of the Accademia Nazionale di Agricoltura (National Academy of Agriculture, since 2016).

Awards

Honorary fellow of HortResearch, New Zealand (1996)

Overseas research experience

1996 Research fellow, HortResearch (formerly Dept Scientific & Industrial Research) Auckland, New Zealand; 1993 Visiting professor, Actinidia germplasm repositories in China (Beijing, Wuhan, Guilin); 1992 Research fellow, Dept Scientific & Industrial Research, Auckland, New Zealand; 1990-91 Research fellow, Dept Scientific & Industrial Research, Auckland, New Zealand; 1986 Research fellow, University of Georgia, AthensGA, USA; 1983 Visiting scientist, ARO, The Volcani Center, Israel.

Foreign languages

Written/Spoken: English; Understood/Read: French, Spanish

Current research topics

-Isolation of microsatellite DNA in fruit crops (kiwifruit, peach, almond, apricot, olive, grape, strawberry) and their use in population genetics and forensic genotyping

-Molecular taxonomy, genetic diversity and domestication of fruit crops

-Kiwifruit genetics and breeding (geneticsof dioecy, mapping and cloning quality traits, breeding for novel fruit)

-Grape genetics and breeding (genetic maps, mapping and cloning genes for disease resistances, anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway, genetic determinants of aromatic profiles)

-Apple genetics and breeding (resistance genes and associated markers, breeding for novel fruit by combining disease resistance and fruit diversity)

-Apricot genetics (mapping and cloning the resistance to Plum Pox Vurs (Sharka))

-Kiwifruit crop science and management

Research projects (Granting Organization, position)

Has participated to European research projects (CAMAR, INCO-DC, COST), National research projects (MPI40%, PRIN, CNR-IPRA, CNR-RAISA, CNR bilaterals, MiPA e MiPAF, FISR, INRM) and several projects funded by regional administrations and private companies.

Main running projects:

-Resistance to sharka in apricot: genetic analysis and breeding resistant/tolerant lines (Ministry of Education, PRIN Unit leader)

-VIGNETO: Exploitation of the main Italian autoctonous grape varieties and their ‘terroir’ (Ministry of Agriculture, scientist)

-VISO: Sustainable viticulture (EU INTERREG Italy-Slovenija, scientist)

-INNOWINE: viticulture knowledge transfer (Regional Administration, scientist)

-DRUPOMICS. Peach genome sequencing (Ministry of Agriculture, scientist)

-CITROMICS. Clementine genome sequencing (Ministry of Agriculture, scientist)

-OLEA. Olive genomics and breeding (Ministry of Agriculture, scientist)

-AGER. Apple breeding for quality (Network of Bank Foundations, scientist)

-Apple. Variety testing (Ministry of Agriculture, Unit leader)

-Kiwifruit breeding (Chile Government, scientist)

-Kiwifruit breeding (several private companies, Projects leader)

Major achievements

-Significant contribution to the introduction of kiwifruit crop in Italy

-Establishment of germplasm repositories for the genus Actinidia ( 28 taxa, a. 180 accessions), Vitis (30 taxa, a. 800 accessions), Malus (16 taxa, a. 220 accessions).

-Revision of the systematic position of some Actinidia taxa, based molecular analysis and demonstration of the origin of the hexaploid genome of A. deliciosa from diploid/ tetraploid races of A. chinensis

-First evidence of the genetic control of sex in kiwifruit being monofactorial and first elucidation of how the monofactorial control could operate in polyploids

-Discovery of the paternal inheritance of chloroplasts in Actinidia

-Large-scale isolation of SSR in fruit crops (almond, apricot, chestnut, grapevine, kiwifruit, peach, olive, strawberry, walnut)

-linkage maps in kiwifruit, grape, apricot and mapping several genes/QTLs controlling traits of interest for breeders

-DNA-based genetic traceability in olive oil

Patents

Fifteen plant variety patents:

Autari, kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) male selection (released in 1996)

Belen, kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) male selection (released in 2002)

Soreli, kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) yellow-fleshed female selection (released in 2008)

Dorì, kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) yellow-fleshed female selection (released in 2012)

Zuva, kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) male selection (released in 2015)

Ten new grapevine cultivars resistant to diseases (released in 2015).

Publications

More than 200 scientific papers.

Metrics from the Web of Science (30/05/2016)

Citations5331

H index 38

i10-index63

Updated 30/05/2017