Supervisors: Prof. Antonella Castagna and Prof. Annamaria Ranieri
Research field: Agricultural Chemestry
Research interests: plant resilience, plant physiology, UV radiation, photosynthesis, food quality
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, via del Borghetto 80, 56124, Pisa, Italy
maria.sciampagna@phd.unipi.it
PhD student DAFE, University of Pisa. Research project: “Priming effect of UV-B radiation towards abiotic/biotic stresses in tomato plants. A tool to increase plant resistance and to improve the nutraceutical quality of fruit”. The PhD project aims to test whether UV-B radiation can act as a priming factor to improve the resistance of tomato plants against salt stress, thus limiting the negative effect of the stress itself. The research was conducted using tomato plantlets (Solanum Lycopersicum L., cv. Moneymaker) grown in hydroponic systems with or without NaCl and pre-treated or not with UV-B radiation. The research foresees (1) a study of the responses of the photosynthetic apparatus, with a focus on the photosystem II (PSII) proteins and the photosynthetic pigments; (2) study of the main antioxidant systems, both enzymatic and non-enzymatic ones, at leaf and root level; (3) study of leaf and root secondary metabolites. Master’s degree: Bio-Safety and Food Quality. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (DAFE), University of Pisa. Thesis: “Evaluation of the effectiveness of post-harvest treatments with UV-B and UV-A radiation to improve the colour and quality of apple fruit”. Bachelor’s degree: Biological Science. Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena. Thesis: “Germination physiology and polyphenol and flavonoid content of seeds and sprouts of Lens culinaris L. var Onano”. Skills: main biochemical techniques (protein electrophoresis, western blotting, spectrophotometric and HPLC analysis), data management and statistical analysis, good knowledge of Microsoft Office software.
