People

Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia

Augusto is the Faculty responsible for the Lab. He is also responsible for maintaining this web page. His professional web page is http://augusto-garcia.github.io/. For more information about him on the web, check his about.me page.

Augusto’s research goals include having a better understanding of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, through linkage and QTL mapping, association mapping, and genomic selection. Most of his activities involve sugarcane, a complex autopolyploid species that does not fully benefit from molecular markers technology, but many other plant species have also been studied.

He is also an enthusiastic of free software, and has been using Linux for many years. He strongly supports and encourage the usage of R, Emacs, LaTeX, and git, among many other software and tools.

“Statistical Genetics is about develop models to have a better understanding of genetic data, under (somehow) realistic assumptions about the involved phenomena”.

PhD Students

Getúlio Caixeta Ferreira (by himself)

Getúlio is a PhD candidate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). He has a Master degree in the same area and undergraduate degree in Agronomy by Federal University of Lavras (UFLA).

During master’s degree, he worked with common bean and eucalyptus breeding. He is interested in quantitative genetics, plant breeding and genome wide selection. For more information about Getúlio, please visit his Lattes CV.

Camila Godoy dos Santos (by herself)

Camila is an Agronomist (Federal University of Uberlândia) and Master’s Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ / USP).

During her undergraduate, she had a three-year internship in a Cotton Breeding Program, working with genetic diversity and microsatellite markers. Currently, Camila is interested in quantitative genetics, genomic selection and development of statistical methods for plant breeding. For more information about Camila, please visit her Lattes CV.

Wellingson Assunção Araújo (by himself)

Wellingson is an Agronomist and has a Master’s degree in Genetics and Breeding at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV).

During his major and master’s degree, he worked with tissue culture and molecular markers in the cultures of Sugarcane, Palm oil, Macaúba palm and passion fruit. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). He has dedicated his studies to quantitative genetics, genome-wide association, QTL mapping and genomic selection. For more information about Wellingson, please visit his Lattes CV.

Gabriel Mamedio de Freitas (by himself)

Gabriel is a PhD student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). He is an Agronomist and has a MSc degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding, by Federal University of Góias (UFG).

During his undergraduate and Master degrees he worked with tissue culture of Cerrado’s natives species and sugarcane. Nowadays, Gabriel is interested in quantitative genetics, genomic selection and development of statistical methods for plant breeding. For more information about Gabriel, please visit his Lattes CV.

Diana Solarte (by herself)

Diana received a master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from Colombia’s National University, graduated in Agricultural Engineering from Cauca University and is currently advancing her doctoral studies at University of Sao Paulo (ESALQ/USP).

During her professional career she has been involved researching in different public and private institutions in Colombia including CIAT, SENA, Cauca University, Colombia’s National University and Tolima University. Experience as a breeder on species such as forages, tomato, andean beans, forests and cannabis sativa. Research main lines molecular biology, plant pathology, population genetics, community-based participatory breeding, quantitative genetics and omics. Currently, her doctoral research involves genetic diversity studies and genome wide association studies for oligogenic traits in cassava. For more information about Diana, please visit her Lattes CV.

Pedro Henrique de Souza (by himself)

Pedro has started as a field technician, working in a farm and always feeling the need to study and understand more about agriculture.

That thought drove him to the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) where he got a bachelor degree in Agronomy, and latter, working with genetic control of the CpMMV in beans, he got a master’s degree in genetics and plant breeding. Pedro is Currently studying maize breeding at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP), aiming a better use of molecular markers and field trials to select the best genotypes, and increase the gains in a breeding program. For more information about Pedro, please visit his Lattes CV.

Heitor Calux Mendonça (by himself)

Heitor is a PhD student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP).

He is an agronomist with a master’s degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology (Londrina State University). During his master’s he worked with Brazilian soybean cultivars, focusing on genetic diversity, selection signatures and the genetic architecture of quantitative traits. For more information about Heitor, please visit his Lattes CV.

MSc Students

Vitória Bizão Murakami (by herself)

Vitória has a degree in Biotechnology by Universidade Federal de São Carlos (USFCar).

During her undergraduate she did a Scientific Initiation (CNPq) about Genomic Selection in citrus. Currently, she is a master’s Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP) and her research comprises Genotype-by-Environment interaction. For more information about Vitória, please visit her Lattes CV.

Talissa de Oliveira Floriani (by herself)

Talissa has a degree in Agronomy from Santa Catarina State University (UDESC) and is currently a Master’s student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo(ESALQ/USP).

During her undergraduate program she worked on quantiative genetics and the root system in the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Talissa did her senior year at the University of California Davis (UCD), where she worked on domestication syndrome and quantiative traits in common bean, lima bean and garbanzo beans, at the Gepts Lab(Laboratory of Dr. Paul Gepts). Currently she is working on a project from FAPESP with Common bean response to the root knot nematode Meloidoyne incognita, linkage map and QTL mapping. She also joined the lab improvements for OneMap Software and is also a member from DS4GEN (Data Science for Genetics). For more information about Talissa, please visit her Lattes CV.

Adilson Aderito (by himself)

Adilson have a bachelor’s degree in Agronomic Engineering from “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP) and is current doing his master’s in the same institution.

He is passionate about ornamental plant breeding, and currently works as a Breeder at Könst Alstroemeria and Ecoflora. Some of the crops he currently works with are Hippeastrum, Orchids, Calla and Alstroemeria. As a master’s student at ESALQ-USP he aims with his research to better understand the polyploid nature of Hippeastrum hybrids, setting the basis for future molecular breeding of this crop. For more information about Adilson, please visit his Lattes CV.

Undergraduate Students

Pedro Afonso Jaloto (by himself)

Pedro is an undergraduate student at the University of São Paulo, majoring in Agronomy at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP).

His current project is the result of a partnership between Embrapa and the Lab, and is titled “Application of statistical methodologies for pedigree reconstruction in autopolyploidy using biallelic markers,” focusing on Panicum maximum. For more information about Pedro, please visit his Lattes CV.

Rafaela Prado Graciano (by herself)

Rafaela is an undergraduate student in biological sciences (Bachelor’s degree and licenciate degree) at the “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP).

Currently, she has a Scientific Initiation fellow at CAPES, her project is the result of a partnership between Embrapa and the Lab, and involves genomic selection in Panicum maximum. For more information about Rafaela, please visit her Lattes CV.

Laura Lariza Polizel (by herself)

Laura is an undergraduate student in agronomic engineering (Bachelor’s and licentiate) at the “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP). Currently, she has a Scientific Initiation fellow, her project is the result of a partnership between Embrapa and the Lab, which is entitled “Evaluation of grouping methods for genetic diversity studies”. For more information about Laura, visit her Lattes CV.

Marina Cunha Bernardes (by herself)

Marina is an undergraduate student in Agronomic Engineering at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo (ESALQ/USP). She has started her studies at Statistical Genetics Lab in 2021. Currently, Marina is focusing her studies on quantitative genetics, linear algebra and programming softwares for genetic mapping. For more information about Marina, please visit her Lattes CV.

Brenda Monis Moreno (by herself)

Brenda is am undergraduate student in Agricultural Engineering at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo (ESALQ/USP).

She is doing her second supervised internship at the Statistical Genetics Lab focused on the study of quantitative traits in plant genetics.

Pedro Henrique Massaro da Silveira (by himself)

Pedro is an agronomic engineering undergraduate student at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP).

He had a six-month internship at Bioinformatics Applied to Bioenergy Laboratory, working on RNA-seq and programming in R. Currently he is doing an internship at Statistical Genetics Laboratory. He has interest in studying programming and statistical methods for plant breeding..