Presentation

The Postgraduate Program in Genetics and Breeding of the Federal University of Viçosa in 2020 will complete 44 years of success in the training of teachers and researchers. The master’s program began in August 1976. The doctoral program began in March 1979. Currently the course has 133, of which 47 are masters and 86 are PhDs, who are strongly encouraged to take their doctorate abroad. Up to march 2020, 584 master’s theses and 416 doctoral theses were defended. The program is administered by the departments of General Biology and Plant Science, and counts on the participation of guiding professors belonging to the departments of General Biology, Plant Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Forestry Engineering, Statistics, Phytopathology, Phytotechnology and Microbiology. The interdepartmental character is one of the strengths of the program, since it integrates lines of research carried out by teachers from different departments. The objective has been the formation of high level human resources, trained to work in teaching, research and technological development activities in Brazil and abroad. This has been achieved by combining qualified faculty, current and relevant research lines, broad and current curriculum, availability of financial resources, adequate physical and equipment structure, supportive human resources with professional qualifications, and well-trained and apt search.

The guiding teachers stand out for the regular intellectual production of intellectual quality and with a strong international insertion. As a result, 81% of program leaders are CNPq Research Productivity Fellows. Also noteworthy are the elaboration of books used in many Graduate Programs in the country , In the areas of Plant Breeding, Methods in Quantitative Genetics and Genomic Statistics, and the development of software. The GENES and SAEG programs, for data analysis in Genetics and Improvement, are used by numerous institutions in the country and abroad. The most important and current lines of research in the area of ​​Genetics and Improvement are contemplated by the research and teaching activities of teachers, such as Genomic Statistics, Functional Genomics, Bioinformatics, Genetic Diversity, Molecular Phylogeny, Quantitative Genetics, BLUP in Genetic Improvement, Flow and Image Cytometry, Tissue Culture, among others. The basic and applied researches contribute to the development of technological methods and processes in the various related areas. The various plant breeding programs produce new cultivars, including soybeans, sugarcane, beans, corn, coffee, wheat, vegetables and fruit trees. Regarding the development of cultivars, recently the UFV was honored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, as the university with the largest number of cultivars protected. There are 13 soybean cultivars, two of sugarcane, three of corn, one of wheat, five of coffee, developed in partnership with Epamig, and one of beans, developed in partnership with Embrapa, Epamig and UFLA . The contribution of the funding agencies, especially FINEP, CAPES, CNPq and FAPEMIG, has been relevant and essential, enabling projects and allowing the maintenance and modernization of the research infrastructure. Participation in the CAPES PROEX program has allowed a significant number of students to be maintained, around 40 in the master’s degree and 80 in the doctorate. Most of the research laboratories are located in the Institute of Biotechnology Applied to Agropecuaria / BIOAGRO. Also noteworthy are the Laboratories of Biotechnology / LABTEC and Cytogenetics. In the Bioinformatics Laboratory, located in BIOAGRO, the renowned MatLab software (with the toolboxes Statistics, Bioinformatics and Neural Network), GenStat, ASReml, JoinMap and MapQTL are available for experimental data analysis. The SAS is offered in a network by the UFV. Employing resources from the Pró-Equipamentos / Capes Call for Proposals 2009, the Program Coordination acquired a SNP analyzer (‘Single Nucleotide Polymorphism’). The equipment is the BeadXpress of the Illumina Company. With this instrument the researches in Molecular Biology will be equated with the most current and relevant in the world. In the short term we will go beyond the phase of mapping molecular markers and QTL analysis, entering the phase of identifying candidate genes and wide genomic selection, as in the most advanced research centers in Genetics and Improvement. The experimental fields are distributed in the UFV, in four experimental stations and in seven farms. There is availability of support staff in all laboratories and experimental fields. Finally, the students stand out. Scientific initiators and postgraduates have excellent academic performance, relevant contribution in the elaboration and / or execution of research projects, which stimulates the integration between undergraduate and graduate students, and outstanding participation in the most important scientific events of the year. area.

Since its inception, the program has received students from various states, and foreigners, as well as professionals from public and private educational and / or research institutions. Foreign students are holders of the TWAS Programs – CNPq Agreement / Academy of Sciences for Developing Countries and PEC-PG – Program of Students – Postgraduate Agreement. The Program also regularly receives postdoctoral professionals. Annually one to two students take part of their doctorate abroad, mainly in American universities. As the program is constantly evolving, CAPES has always had an excellent evaluation, obtaining in all evaluations the concept of excellence, that is, concept A from 1976 to 1997, grade 7 in the 1998-2000, 2001-2003 and 2007-2010 three-year periods, grade 6 in the period 2004-2006 and 2011-2013. From 2013 until now, the evaluation became quadrennial and the concept obtained was the maximum again, 7. The professionals graduated from the program have participated in research teams and as professors in several national and international institutions, and occupied positions of relevance in several companies. The work of the professors in cooperation with private seed, wood and pulp production companies, and animal breeding, among others, as members of the editorial committee and reviewers of renowned national and international magazines, as advisors to FINEP, CNPq, CAPES and the State Research Support Foundations, and as extensionists in the most important annual extension event of the UFV, denominated Farmer’s Week, are the highlights of extension activities. Regularly the program leaders participate in academic cooperation projects (PROCAD / Capes and Casadinho / CNPq). Since 2004, the Coordinating Committee, with the participation of the GenMelhor Study Group, has been offering lectures, round tables and mini-courses at the annual Thematic Meeting in order to update knowledge and integrate teachers and students of the program with other professionals in the area. Genetics and Breeding.

Management

Coordinator

Prof. Leonardo Lopes Bhering (Department of General Biology)

Teaching Members

Prof. Luiz Antonio dos Santos Dias (Department of Plant Science)

Prof. Rodrigo Oliveira de Lima (Department of Plant Science)

Prof. Welington Ronildo Clarindo (Department of General Biology)

Student Member

Arthur Mayrink Elizeu

Technical Support – Administrative

Marco Túlio Cardoso

Odilon Soares Junior

Didactic-Scientific Coordination

The didactic-scientific coordination is carried out by a coordinating committee composed of a professor representing each of the departments involved and a representative of the students of the Program; The coordinator is one of the members of the Commission, following a four-year rotation between the departments involved in his administration.