Chiara Di Dio

Biography

I work on meiosis, a specialized cell division that occurs during eukaryote sexual reproduction and results in gametes. I am interested in mechanistic understanding of how parental traits are reassorted in offspring during meiosis in a process termed recombination, or crossover. This is crucial for both fertility in all eukaryotes and crop breeding, as the latter relies on crossover to select novel combinations of agronomically beneficial traits. I have extensive expertise in dissecting meiotic recombination control via genetic, molecular and cytogenetic techniques in a variety of eukaryotes from mammals (bovine) and fish (zebrafish) to polyploid crop plants (wheat).