Donata Marletta

Donata Marletta is full professor of " Livestock systems, animal breeding and genetics " and teaches "Animal production and livestock biodiversity" in the course of I degree  L2 "Biotecnologies"    and  "Genetics and genomics in the improvement of livestock production" in the course of II level Degree   LM7 "Agricultural Biotechnology". Since 2012 to 2016 she has been Chairman of the II level Degree  in LM7 "Agricultural Biotechnology."

From 2008 to 2017 she was a member of the board of the following Doctoral School in "Animal Production Science." . in "Production and food technology." and in the International Doctoral School in "Agricultural, food and environmental science." 

Since 2016 is part of the board of the Doctoral School in "Biotechnology."

She was Commissioner for National Scientific Qualification for the competition sector 07 / G1-Animal Sciences and Technologies for the 2018/2020 session.

From 2018 to 2022 she is a member of the Di3A Student Teachers Joint Commission.

Since 1995, she has carried out research in the field of biotechnology applied to animal genetics and molecular characterization of the biodiversity of livestock species, also by implementing the proteomic approach. In particular, the study explored the major milk proteins loci in bovine, caprine and donkey species. She led the genetic characterization of livestock breeds and populations of interest (bovine, caprine, equine and asinine) using microsatellite markers, in order to assess the genetic variability and assist the selection. She used SNPs markers, especially in sheep and goats, in order to assess the genetic variability, improve and trace the livestock production. She characterized the protein fraction of non bovine milk (goat and donkey in particular), also using proteomic techniques, in order to detect protein polymorphism that may be associated with hypoallergenic properties. She recently gained experience in the sequencing of the protein loci and mtDNA, in order to obtain information about the origin of breeds and horse populations of Sicily.
She was supervisor of several Master students’ thesis and tutor of several PhD students. She frequently was part of the committee in the final examination of PhD students, in Italy and abroad.
She took part and takes part as a contributor or leader of research units in national or European research projects. With reference to the research projects for the caprine species, she took part in the European project Econogene "Sustainable conservation of animal genetic resources in marginal rural areas: integrating molecular genetics, socio-economics and Geostatistical approaches" and the National Research Project POM A/03 (2000 ) " Exploitation of cheese products from Southern Italy through the investigation of those factors affected their specificity."   Agritech Project", National Center for the Development of New Technologies in Agriculture" Spoke 5 "Sustainable productivity and mitigation of environmental impact in livestock systems" WP 5.2. "Livestock management for improving resilience to climate change" Task 5.2.2 "Testing of resistant and resilient animals".  PRIN 2022 “ Equine resilience and welfare in Climate change and stressful scenarios using Omic technologies and innovative low cost Sensors - ECOS”.     

She is a member of the Scientific Association of Animal Production (A.S.P.A) and is part of the scientific commission on "Adaptability of livestock systems to climate change".

Since 2024 she is director of the Inter-university Center for "Adaptability of Livestock Systems to Climate Change (ASIZOCACLI)..                                                                                                                    

She is member of the Scientific Association of Animal Production (ASPA) and of the Scientific commision on "Adaptability of livestock systems to climate change". She takes part to some some Italian scientific Consortia -  Italian Goat Consortium, Consortium BIOVITA (Italian Ovine Biodiversity) and BOVITA (Italian Bovine Biodiversity).

Since 2019 he is a member of the editorial board of  "Animals" (ISSN 2076-2615 – Impact Factor 1,832 in 2018 - Rank Q1 in the categories “Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science” and “Veterinary Science”).

She is co-author of over 100 scientific publications, (81 documents, Total citations 1843 H index = 23- Scopus April  2024).

(Last updated April  2024)