Giuseppe Diego Puglia
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Giuseppe Diego
Puglia
Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean Researcher Nutrheff Thematic Agronomic technology, Biomolecular technologies (enzymatic, biochemical, molecular biology)
Research Interest and expertise in the field of nutraceuticals
and functional food
Keywords: Novel foods; nutraceutical pathways regulation; biofortification of foods; abiotic stresses; Mediterranean plant species
Nutraceuticals and foods of interestInvestigation of specialized metabolism regulation in edible Mediterranean plants through the analysis of the expression level measurement of structural genes and transcription factors mainly of the phenolics and terpenes pathways using transcriptomics approach. Plant treatments are implemented using also soilless cultivation systems as biofortification approaches providing food with tailored nutraceutical composition with the use of different abiotic stress conditions while minimizing water use. All the compounds produced by the plant specialized phenolics metabolism (from hydrolysable tannins to anthocyanins and flavonoids) and terpenes metabolism as well. To this end, common food sources are used, such as juice (from pomegranate), fruits (pomegranate or olive tree), inflorescence (artichoke), leaves (cultivated and wild cardoon), seeds (wild cardoon, sea rocket). Moreover, also novel foods are employed, such as sprouts (from cultivated and wild cardoons, sea rockets and sea fennel). Fields of application The application areas of our research are diverse and extensive since they can be useful in plant breeding programs, as novel agronomical practices or for wild plants valorization and preservation of natural ecosystems. As a research topic, it mainly relies on the study of plant metabolic pathways, and their regulation, associated with the production of bioactive compounds. To this end, also novel cultivation practices are used to achieve food biofortification with nutraceuticals. Facilities and equipments PLANT BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY equipped with Qiagen QIAxcel Advanced System Automated Liquid Handling platform, Eppendorf epMotion® 5070 Real-Time PCR instrument Rotorgene 6000 cycler (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), PCR thermocycler Eppendorf Mastercycler®, Eppendorf BioSpectrometer® Climatic chambers Laminar flow hood Freezers and Ultra-low Freezers |
