samiasamad

Samia Samad

Research Scientist
Project Center for Agro Technologies

Professor Laurent Gentzbittel

Samia obtained her PhD in plant production sciences from the University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2018. Her PhD research was in collaboration with Fondazione Edmund Mach (Italy), where she spent almost half of her time. Her interest and research experience spans over a number of different areas of plant biology such as horticulture, flowering time, quantitative biology, plant physiology, molecular biology, biotechnology, genetics and plant pathology.

Samia joined Skoltech in April 2022 as a research scientist in the Digital Agriculture Laboratory. Prior to Russia, Samia has conducted research work at University Brunei Darussalam (UBD, Brunei Darussalam), National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB, UK), Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM, Italy), University of Helsinki (UH, Finland) and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, Sweden). She has mentored some students and has supervised one student and co-supervised another from the MSc Microbial Horticulture program in Sweden.

Within the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory, Samia works on plant- microbial interaction and will also work on multi- omics.

Research:

  • Flowering time
  • Plant physiology
  • Plant molecular biology
  • Plant biotechnology
  • Plant genetics
  • Plant- microbial interaction

Samad, S., Gentzbittel, L., Bondarenko, E., Rickauer, M, Volkova, P. and Ben, C. Insights into the Pathogenic Mechanisms and the Control Strat-Egies of Anthracnose in Lupins – A Comprehensive Review. Preprint- DOI: 10.20944/preprints202312.2132.v1 [submitted]

Samad, S., Baik, A., Boldyrev, S., Kotelevtsev, I., Volkova, P., Bondarenko, E., Bondarenko, V., Bitarishvili, S., Lukashevich, M., Gentzbittel, L. and Ben, C. (2023). Characterization of white lupin (Lupinus albus) cultivars’ response to primary infection by diverse colletotrichum lupini strains from a single Russian field. International Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Research (IJAER). Vol. 9 (6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.51193/IJAER.2023.9606

Bitarishvili, S., Samad, S., Boldyrev, S., Ben, C., Volkova, P., Shavarda, A., Lukashevich, M., & Bondarenko, E. (2023). Metabolic profiling reveals fumar ic acid and GABA as possible markers of Colletotrichum lupini infection of white lupin. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, 128 (102130).   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmpp.2023.102130

Samad, S.*, Rivero, R., Balachandra Kalyandurg, P., Vetukuri, R., Heide, O. M., & Khalil, S. (2022)Characterization of environmental effects on flowering and plant architecture in an everbearing strawberry F1-hybrid by meristem dissection and gene expression analysis. Horticulturae, 8(7), 626.  https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8070626   *corresponding author

Andrés, J., Caruana, J., Liang, J., Samad, S., Monfort, A., Liu, Z., Hytönen, T., & Koskela, E. A. (2022). Erratum to: Woodland strawberry axillary bud fate is dictated by a crosstalk of environmental and endogenous factors. Plant Physiology, 188(1), 674–674. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiab491

Samad, S.*, Butare, D., Marttila, S., Sønsteby, A., & Khalil, S. (2021). Effects of Temperature and Photoperiod on the Flower Potential in Everbearing Strawberry as Evaluated by Meristem Dissection. Horticulturae, 7(11), 484. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7110484 *corresponding author

Kurokura, T., Samad, S., Koskela, E., Mouhu, K., & Hytönen, T. (2017). Fragaria vesca CONSTANS controls photoperiodic flowering and vegetative development. Journal of Experimental Botany, 68(17), 4839–4850. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erx301

Samad, S., Kurokura, T., Koskela, E., Toivainen, T., Patel, V., Mouhu, K., Sargent, D. J., & Hytönen, T. (2017). Additive QTLs on three chromosomes control flowering time in woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.). Horticulture Research, 4(17020–), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/hortres.2017.20

Steele, K., Dickin, E., Keerio, M. D., Samad, S., Kambona, C., Brook, R., Thomas, W., & Frost, G. (2013). Breeding low-glycemic index barley for functional food. Field Crops Research, 154, 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2013.07.018

Popular science

Khalil, S., Samad, S., & Uggla, M. (2021). Biocirkulär ekonomi i trädgårdsnäringen med svampkompost i jordgubbsodling (pp. 1–4). Fakulteten för landskapsarkitektur, trädgårds- och växtproduktionsvetenskap, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet.

Research interest

  • Flowering time
  • Plant physiology
  • Plant molecular biology
  • Plant biotechnology
  • Plant genetics
  • Plant- microbial interaction

Past projects:

Flower mapping in the strawberry everbearing cultivar – SLU, Sweden

Regulation of vegetative and generative reproduction in the woodland strawberry – UH, Finland

QTL of flowering time in the woodland strawberry- FEM, Italy

Using a linkage map of naked x hulled barley for the investigation of inheritance of starch , beta-glucan and other traits for UK cultivation- Bangor University, UK

Bioconversion of bovine split skin into value-added products. – UBD, Brunei Darussalam

Grant and Awards

  • 2017 The faculty of Agriculture and Forestry (MMTDK) grant for research activities from the University of Helsinki, Finland to continue the research on the balance between reproductive and vegetative development in woodland strawberries.
  • 2012 – 2016 GMPF Fellowship (Genomics and Molecular Physiology of Fruits) at Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele All’Adige, TN, Italy.