Genetics and Genomics of Plant Complex Traits Lab

	Maria Carlota Vaz Patto
	Principal Investigator
	cpatto@itqb.unl.pt
	Genetics and Genomics of Plant Complex Traits Lab

Current members
Carmen Santos	Junior Researcher
Susana T Leitão	Post-Doc Researcher
Estefanía Uberegui	Post-Doc
Matilde Sanches	PhD Student
Helia Sales	PhD Student
Letice Gonçalves	PhD student
Francisco Mendes	PhD student
Rita Maravilha Marques	PhD student

Collaborators
Mara L Alves	Invited Researcher at PlantX-ITQB NOVA
Maria do Rosário Bronze	Faculdade de Farmácia UL, Head of the Food Functionality and Bioactives groups ITQB NOVA/ iBET
Susana de Sousa Araújo	Director of Investigação-Região Norte BLC3
Diego Rubiales	IAS-CSIC, Córdoba, Spain
Zlatko Satovic	University of Zagreb, Croatia
Fred van Eeuwijk	Biometris, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Sophien Kamoun	TSL, Norwich, UK
Frank Van Breusegem	VIB-PSB University of Gent, Belgium

Current Projects
2022- 2027 \| DIVINFOOD - Co-constructing interactive short and mid-tier food chains to value agrobiodiversity in healthy plant based food (Call H2020-SFS-2018-2020, Topic SFS-01-2018-2019-2020, Grant Agreement Nº 101000383). PI: Yuna Chiffoleau (INRAE, France). Co-funded by the European Commission – H2020 Programme
2021-2024 \| DROMAMED- Capitalization of Mediterranean maize germplasm for improving stress tolerance. (Call Prima Section 2 2020, PRIMA/0014/2020). PI: Pedro Revilla (CSIC, Spain). Co-funded by the European Commission, H2020 Programme and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2018 – 2022 \| BEAN LAND - Programa de Conservação e Melhoramento de Leguminosas de Grão (Phaseolus vulgaris) (PDR2020-784-042734). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2018-2022 \| Programa de Melhoramento de Oliveira (PDR2020-784-042744) PI: P Fevereiro
2018-2022 \| Programa de Conservação e Melhoramento de Forrageiras (PDR2020-784-042743) PI: P Fevereiro
2020-2023 \| DiVicia - Use and management of Vicia species for sustainability and resilience in biodiversity-based farming systems. (Call PRIMA Section 2 2019). PI: Joelle Fustec (ESA, France)

Past Projects
	2017 – 2021 \| DIVERSify - Designing InnoVative plant teams for Ecosystem Resilience and agricultural Sustainability. (Call H2020-SFS-2016-2017, Topic SFS-02-2016, Grant Agreement Nº 727284). PI: Alison Karley (JHI, UK)
2015-2019 \| Using three-way interactions between plants, microbes and arthropods to enhance crop protection and production. COST Action FA1405. PI: Arjen Biere (KNAW, NL) Participants: MC Vaz Patto as Managing Committee Member. COST - European co-operation in the field of scientific and technical research.
	2015-2019 \| DIVERSIFOOD - Embedding crop diversity and networking for local high quality food systems (Call H2020-SFS-2014-2, Topic SFS-07a-2014, Grant Agreement Nº 633571) PI: Veronique Chable (INRA, France)
2015-2018 \| PEARES - Pea breeding for disease resistance (Mejora genetica del guisante por resistencia a enfermedades) (AGL2014-52871-R) PI: Diego Rubiales and Sara Fondevila (IAS-CSIC, Spain)
2016-2019 \| Deciphering the grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) quality riddle. How can the omics technologies contribute to a demand-driven improvement in legume quality? (QuaLaty) (PTDC/AGR-TEC/0992/2014). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2013-2015 \| Exploiting Bean Genetics for food Quality and Attractiveness innovation (BEGEQA). Funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/AGR-TEC/3555/2012). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2014-2017 \| LEGATO - LEGumes for the Agriculture of TOmorrow (FP7-KBBE-2013-7 call, Grant Agreement Nº 613551). PI: Richard Thompson (INRA, France). Co-funded by the European Commission. FP7 Framework Programme.

Main Publications

2022

BENTO-SILVA A, Duarte N, Santos M, Costa CP, Patto MCV, Rocha SM, Bronze MR (2022) Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography as a Powerful Strategy for the Exploration of Broas Volatile Composition. Molecules,27(9). doi: 10.3390/molecules27092728

GONÇALVES L, Rubiales D, Bronze MR, Vaz Patto MC (2022) Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) - A Sustainable and Resilient Answer to Climate Challenges. Agronomy 12:6. doi: 10.3390/agronomy12061324

JIMENEZ-LOPEZ JC, Clemente A, Ochatt SJ, Vaz Patto MC, Von Wettberg E, Smýkal P (2022) Editorial: Biological and genetic basis of agronomical and seed quality traits in legumes. Frontiers in Plant Science,13. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1009980

MARTINS DC, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2022) Association Mapping of Lathyrus sativus Disease Response to Uromyces pisi Reveals Novel Loci Underlying Partial Resistance. Frontiers in Plant Science,13. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.842545

REVILLA P, Alves ML, Anđelković V, Balconi C, Dinis I, Mendes-Moreira P, Redaelli R, Ruiz de Galarreta JI, Vaz Patto MC, Žilić S, Malvar RA (2022) Traditional foods from maize (Zea mays L.) in Europe. Frontiers in Nutrition 8:683399. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2021.683399.

MENDES F, Leitão S, Correia V, Mecha E, Rubiales D, Bronze, MR, Vaz Patto MC (2022) Portuguese Common Bean Natural Variation Helps to Clarify the Genetic Architecture of the Legume’s Nutritional Composition and Protein Quality. Plants 11(1):26. DOI: 10.3390/plants11010026

MECHA E, Erny GL, Guerreiro ACL, Feliciano RP, Barbosa I, Bento da Silva A, Leitão ST, Veloso MM, Rubiales D, Rodriguez-Mateos A, Figueira ME, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze MR (2022) Metabolomics profile responses to changing environments in a Portuguese common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm collection. Food Chemistry 370:131003. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131003

SALES H, Figueiredo F, Vaz Patto MC, Nunes J (2022) Assessing the environmental sustainability of Portuguese olive growing practices from a life cycle assessment perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production,355. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131692

SANTOS C, Martins DC, González-Bernal MJ, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2022) Integrating Phenotypic and Gene Expression Linkage Mapping to Dissect Rust Resistance in Chickling Pea. Frontiers in Plant Science,13. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.837613

2021

RUBIALES D, Annicchiarico P, Vaz Patto MC, Julier B (2021) Legume breeding for the Agroecological transition of global agri-food systems: A European perspective. Frontiers in Plant Sciences 12:782574. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.782574

BENTO-SILVA A, Duarte N, Belo M, Mecha E, Carbas B, Brites C, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze MR (2021) Shedding light on the volatile composition of broas, a traditional Portuguese maize bread. Biomolecules 11(10):1396. DOI: 10.3390/biom11101396

SAMPAIO AM, Alves ML, Pereira PM, Ehsan V, Santos C, Satovic Z, Rubiales D, Araújo SS, van Eeuwijk F, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Grass pea natural variation reveals oligogenic resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi. Plant Genome 2021:e20154. DOI: 10.1002/tpg2.20154

ERNY G, Brito E, Pereira AB, Bento da Silva A, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze M (2021) Projection to latent correlative structures, a dimension reduction strategy for spectral-based classification. RSC Advances 11: 29124–29129. DOI: 10.1039/D1RA03359J

LEITÃO ST, Alves ML, Pereira P, Zerrouk A, Godinho B, Barradas A, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Towards a trait-based approach to potentiate yield under drought in legume-rich annual forage mixture. Plants 10(9): 1763. DOI: 10.3390/plants10091763

MECHA E, Correia V, Bento-Silva A, Ferreira A, Figueira ME, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze M (2021) Improvement of wheat cookies' nutritional quality, by partial substitution with common bean and maize flours, sustained human glycaemia and enhanced satiety perception. Cereal Chemistry 98:1123–1134. DOI: 10.1002/cche.10460

LEITÃO ST, Santos C, Araújo SS, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Shared and tailored transcriptomic responses to combined fusarium wilt and water deficit in common bean. Horticulture research 8:149. DOI: 10.1038/s41438-021-00583-2

SALES H, Šatović Z, Alves ML, Fevereiro P, Nunes J, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Accessing ancestral origin and diversity evolution by net divergence of an ongoing domestication Mediterranean olive tree variety. Frontiers in Plant Sciences 12:688214. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.688214

BENTO-SILVA A, Duarte N, Mecha E, Belo M, Serra T, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze MR (2021) Broa, an ethnic maize bread, as a source of phenolic compounds. Antioxidants 10(5): 672. DOI: 10.3390/antiox10050672

SANTOS C, Polanco C, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2021) MLO1 powdery mildew susceptibility gene in Lathyrus spp.: The power of high density linkage maps in comparative mapping and synteny analysis. Plant Genome 14: e20090. DOI: 10.1002/tpg2.20090

SAMPAIO AM, Vitale S, Turrà D, Di Pietro A, Rubiales D, van Eeuwijk F, Vaz Patto MC (2021) A diversity of resistance sources to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi found within grass pea germplasm. Plant and Soil 463: 19–38. DOI: 10.1007/s11104-021-04895-z.

MECHA E, Natalello S, Carbas B, Bento da Silva A, Leitão ST, Brites C, Veloso MM, Rubiales D, Costa J, Cabral MF, Figueira ME, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze MR (2021) Disclosing the nutritional quality diversity of Portuguese common beans – the missing link for its effective use on protein quality breeding programmes. Agronomy 11(2): 221. DOI: 10.3390/agronomy11020221

SAMPAIO AM, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Grass pea and pea phylogenetic relatedness reflected at Fusarium oxysporum host range. Crop Protection 141: 105495. DOI:10.1016/j.cropro.2020.105495.

LEITÃO ST, Bicho MC, Pereira P, Paulo MJ, Malosetti M, Araújo SS, van Eeuwijk F, Vaz Patto MC (2021) Common bean SNP alleles and candidate genes affecting photosynthesis under contrasting water regimes. Horticultural Research 8:4. DOI:10.1038/s41438-020-00434-6

ROCHA C, Ribeiro JC, Costa Lima R, Prista C, Raymundo A, Vaz Patto MC, Cunha LM (2021) Application of the CATA methodology with children: qualitative approach on ballot development and product characterization of innovative products. Food Quality and Preference 88:104083. DOI:10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104083.

Other Selected Publications

ALVES ML, Bento-Silva A, Gaspar D, Paulo M, Brites C, Mendes-Moreira P, Bronze MR, Malosetti M, van Eeuwijk F, Vaz Patto MC (2020) Volatilome‒genome-wide association study on wholemeal maize flour. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 68 (29):7809–7818. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.0c01273

ALVES ML, Bento-Silva A, Carbas B, Gaspar D, Paulo M, Brites C, Mendes-Moreira P, Brites CM, Bronze MR, Malosetti M, van Eeuwijk F, Vaz Patto MC (2020) Alleles to enhance antioxidant content in maize − a genome-wide association approach. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 68(13):4051-4061. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b07190.

SANTOS C, Almeida NF, Alves ML, Horres R, Krezdorn N, Leitão ST, Aznar-Fernández T, Rotter B, Winter P, Rubiales D, Vaz Patto MC (2018) First genetic linkage map of Lathyrus cicera based on RNA sequencing-derived markers: Key tool for genetic mapping of disease resistance. Horticulture Research 5:45. DOI: 10.1038/s41438-018-0047-9

BENTO DA SILVA A, Vaz Patto MC, Bronze MR (2018) Relevance, structure and analysis of ferulic acid in maize cell walls. Food Chemistry 246:360-378. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.11.012. 6.306

ALVES ML, Brites C, Paulo M, Carbas B, Belo M, Mendes-Moreira P, Brites C, Bronze MR, Gunjaca J, Satovic Z, Vaz Patto MC (2017) Setting up decision-making tools towards a quality-oriented participatory maize breeding program. Frontiers in Plant Science 8: 2203. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2017.02203. 5.753

LEITÃO ST, Dinis, M, Veloso MM, Satovic Z, Vaz Patto MC (2017) Establishing the bases for introducing the unexplored Portuguese common bean germplasm into the breeding world. Frontiers in Plant Science 8: 1296. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2017.01296. 5.753

Current Projects
2022- 2027 \| DIVINFOOD - Co-constructing interactive short and mid-tier food chains to value agrobiodiversity in healthy plant based food (Call H2020-SFS-2018-2020, Topic SFS-01-2018-2019-2020, Grant Agreement Nº 101000383). PI: Yuna Chiffoleau (INRAE, France). Co-funded by the European Commission – H2020 Programme
2021-2024 \| DROMAMED- Capitalization of Mediterranean maize germplasm for improving stress tolerance. (Call Prima Section 2 2020, PRIMA/0014/2020). PI: Pedro Revilla (CSIC, Spain). Co-funded by the European Commission, H2020 Programme and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2018 – 2022 \| BEAN LAND - Programa de Conservação e Melhoramento de Leguminosas de Grão (Phaseolus vulgaris) (PDR2020-784-042734). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2018-2022 \| Programa de Melhoramento de Oliveira (PDR2020-784-042744) PI: P Fevereiro
2018-2022 \| Programa de Conservação e Melhoramento de Forrageiras (PDR2020-784-042743) PI: P Fevereiro
2020-2023 \| DiVicia - Use and management of Vicia species for sustainability and resilience in biodiversity-based farming systems. (Call PRIMA Section 2 2019). PI: Joelle Fustec (ESA, France)

Past Projects
	2017 – 2021 \| DIVERSify - Designing InnoVative plant teams for Ecosystem Resilience and agricultural Sustainability. (Call H2020-SFS-2016-2017, Topic SFS-02-2016, Grant Agreement Nº 727284). PI: Alison Karley (JHI, UK)
2015-2019 \| Using three-way interactions between plants, microbes and arthropods to enhance crop protection and production. COST Action FA1405. PI: Arjen Biere (KNAW, NL) Participants: MC Vaz Patto as Managing Committee Member. COST - European co-operation in the field of scientific and technical research.
	2015-2019 \| DIVERSIFOOD - Embedding crop diversity and networking for local high quality food systems (Call H2020-SFS-2014-2, Topic SFS-07a-2014, Grant Agreement Nº 633571) PI: Veronique Chable (INRA, France)
2015-2018 \| PEARES - Pea breeding for disease resistance (Mejora genetica del guisante por resistencia a enfermedades) (AGL2014-52871-R) PI: Diego Rubiales and Sara Fondevila (IAS-CSIC, Spain)
2016-2019 \| Deciphering the grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) quality riddle. How can the omics technologies contribute to a demand-driven improvement in legume quality? (QuaLaty) (PTDC/AGR-TEC/0992/2014). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2013-2015 \| Exploiting Bean Genetics for food Quality and Attractiveness innovation (BEGEQA). Funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/AGR-TEC/3555/2012). PI: MC Vaz Patto
2014-2017 \| LEGATO - LEGumes for the Agriculture of TOmorrow (FP7-KBBE-2013-7 call, Grant Agreement Nº 613551). PI: Richard Thompson (INRA, France). Co-funded by the European Commission. FP7 Framework Programme.