What we do

The scientific activities of Dr. Gabriele Procaccini's group focus on understanding and predicting the responses of individual organisms, communities, and ecosystems to environmental changes, which is a key challenge for this century.

Phylogeography and population genetics approaches have been utilized within the group. These methods exploit polymorphism of microsatellite DNA regions and mutation rates of organellar and nuclear DNA regions.

The research line also embraces more functional approaches, with the aim of understanding the genetic basis of seagrass response diversity to environmental constraints and to stressors associated with human impact and climate change. Developing new assisted evolution approaches, and exploring stress-memory in seagrasses are also part of the research line of the group. 

Methods include gene expression analysis via RNA-Seq and RT-qPCR, epigenetic modifications (mainly DNA methylation) using high-throughput techniques for analyzing the genome-wide methylation profiles coupled with ecophysiological assessments.