Rita Lourenço da Costa

I am a coordinating researcher at INIAV I. P. Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, The Portuguese National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research, PhD in Plant Biotechnology from Science Faculty, University of Lisbon, Head of Plant Biotechnology Laboratory of Forest Research Unit. My research interests are focused on Forest Genetics, Molecular Biology and Genomics of Woody Species, including Castanea sativa Mill, Quercus suber L, Pinus pinea L and P. pinaster Ait. The work developed in recent years has focused on the use of molecular markers to assess the genetic structure of populations of chestnut, maritime and stone pines and the use of genomic tools to understanding the genetics underlying various aspects of the Trees¿ Biology that condition, namely: the quality of wood in pine, yield and quality of cork in cork oak and disease resistance in chestnut and maritime pine, namely chestnut root rot, caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi and pine wilt disease caused by the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Currently I am the coordinator of the research program: “Understanding disease resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi in Castanea spp”. I was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Clemson University, University of Kentucky and Southern Institute of Forest Genetics – USA in the academic year of 2015-2016. Currently I am the scientific coordinator of The Chestnut Breeding Program at INIAV and of the reserach program “Understanding resistance of Castanea spp to Phtytophthora cinnamomi Rands”.