Conference in memory of Prof. Luigi Maria Monti

Rome, March 12, 2024

The progress achieved by agriculture, in the last century, is in large part due to the availability of more productive plants thanks to the activity of genetic improvement, a technology that takes advantage of the possibility of making crosses, intra and/or interspecific, allowing to combine, in a plant, characteristics possessed by different plants. A technology that requires time, resources and with a result that is not always certain. Today, and more so in the future, agriculture faces new challenges, from the consequences of climate change, which, by subjecting plants to abiotic stresses and facilitating the spread of diseases, makes crop production difficult, to the needs of a population that is increasingly attentive to what it finds on its plate. Science is making available new possibilities that ensure the expected results, and quickly. It is not a matter of producing GMOs, but of using techniques of assisted evolution, such as “Cis-genesis” and “genome-editing,” which make it possible to modify a characteristic of the plant, without changing its other traits in the least.

The conference, dedicated to the memory of Prof. Luigi Maria Monti, illustrated some of these new techniques, to which he dedicated an uncommon commitment through research and teaching.

Speakers included:

• Corrado De Concini Presidente dell’Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL
• Matteo Lorito Rettore dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Danilo Ercolini Direttore del Dipartimento di Agraria. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Silvio Salvi Presidente della Società Italiana di Genetica Agraria
• Giorgia Batelli CNR-Istituto di Bioscienze e BioRisorse Sede di Portici
• Stefano Pavan Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti – Università di Bari Aldo Moro
• Riccardo Aversano Dipartimento di Agraria, Portici – Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Nunzio D’Agostino Dipartimento di Agraria – Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Gianfranco Diretto ENEA, C.R. Casaccia
• Massimo Iorizzo Plants for Human Health Institute and Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Kannapolis, NC, USA
• Luigi Frusciante Emerito, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Enrico Porceddu Socio dell’Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL