Marcelo Giovanini
Marcelo Giovanini (mgiovani@purdue.edu)
claims that a breakfast shake of orange juice and broccoli is what
helps him get through a rough day of work as a Ph.D. student in
the Agronomy Department at Purdue.
“If you wake up in the morning feeling tired and not quite
right, take a little bit of broccoli, put it in a blender with equal
amounts of orange juice and ice, and you’ll feel better instantly,”
Marcelo said with an infectious smile.
Marcelo’s research at Purdue is much more scientific. He’s
studying genetics and plant breeding within agronomy’s Genetic
Improvement of Economic Crops area.
He is studying the genetics of Hessian fly resistance genes in
wheat and the wheat/fly interaction in wheat plants. He hopes that
the identification of new resistance genes will help protect wheat
plants against the Hessian fly, which, he said, is the most destructive
insect pest in major wheat growing areas all over the world.
“Hessian flies are not a big problem in Indiana because of
late planting dates, but it is a problem for wheat globally,”
Marcelo said. “The results of my research would have a tremendous
application in the field of breeding."
The research tries to understand the molecular mechanism of the
resistance, map new Hessian fly resistance genes on wheat chromosomes
and develop associated microsatelettes markers for the resistance
genes.
By finding associated markers, which are detectable DNA sequences
that cosegregate with a gene, a variety of wheat may protect itself
longer when resistance genes are stacked together in a pyramid fashion.
That strategy will be extremely beneficial to the farmer, Marcelo
said.
Though Marcelo didn’t grow up on a farm, he has been interested
in the field of plant protection and host pathogen interaction.He
was born in the state of San Paulo in Brazil 27 years ago.
Just as families trace their lineage, academics often can trace
their development through their major professors. Marcelo’s
major professor in Brazil, Luiz Ricardo Goulart, was a student of
Purdue’s Herbert W. Ohm, who is now Marcelo’s major
professor in grad school.
Because he received an assistantship from his country, he has agreed
to work in a government institution there after he graduates. He
enjoys explaining things to people who show an interest in his work,
and thinks he would enjoy teaching someday.
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