Bruno Mezzetti
From BINAS
Prof. Dr. Bruno Mezzetti (Italy)
Expertise:
- Field trials with GM plants of strawberry, raspberry and table grape, authorised by the National Biotechnology Committee – Minister of Health.
- Member of working group on GMO organized by the National Committee for Biosafety and Biotechnology.
- Member of the National commission of the Minister of Health for the evaluation of risk assessment trials with genetic manipulated plants.
Current Affiliation:
- Full Professor in Fruit Crop Breeding and Biotechnology (AGR03), Department of Environmental and Crop Science (SAPROV), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
- Chairman of the first and second level degree courses in Agricultural Science and Technology, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
- Local Coordinator of the UNIDO Training Programme in GMO Biosafety at Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
Research Area:
Prof. Dr. Bruno Mezzetti works on vegetatively propagated fruit crops, which are generally considered to have major difficulties for the application of standard breeding programs. The limited availability of genetic resources for the major important traits (e.g. disease resistance, fruit quality, etc.) and genetic barriers, often present in vegetatively propagated crop plants, strongly support the necessity to combine biotechnological approaches with standard breeding programmes. Genetic manipulation is considered a valuable tool for the genetic improvement of important horticultural crops. For this reason, although a general negative view on commercial utilisation of genetically modified (GM) plants is still common in public opinion, studies on the potential risks and benefits of this technology need to be developed in a deeper and more appropriate way. Prof. Mezzetti’s research area includes the development of efficient regeneration and transformation methods for horticultural crops, the subsequent evaluation of the new GM genotypes in respect to EC rules (2001/18/CE) and definition issued by the National Biotechnology Authority of Italy.
Depending on the species and/or genotype, for several perennial fruit plants efficient protocols for regeneration and selection of transgenic plants have already been developed by Prof. Mezzetti’s research group. This group has a particular experience on regeneration on fruit crops (Navacchi et al., Patent - IPO, 2000) and especially in berries (Mezzetti et al., 1997 and 2002a). Several results were also obtained relating to the evaluation of the agronomical performance (benefits) of new transgenic clones and to the potential risks deriving from their release.
Address:
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali e delle Produzioni Vegetali
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Brecce Bianche 60100 Ancona IT
phone +390712204933, mobile phone +393203526036, fax +390712204856
email: b.mezzetti@univpm.it
SKIPE account: b.mezzetti
Info: Prof. Bruno Mezzetti
