Maria Eugénia Nunes received her PhD in Plant Breeding at the University of Texas A&M, in the USA. Evaluation of genetic resources has been the main area of investigation. Genotyping germplasm collections and tagging desirable agronomic traits in different crops such as Vitis vinifera, forage legumes, grain legumes and horticultural crops. Tomato transformation using nematode RNAi constructs in A. tumefaciens, and cotton transformation with the PxtD gene in A. tumefaciens (use of phosphite as fertilizer and weed control). Currently, research has been focused on the identification of abiotic stress determinants, by qPCR. Future interests concern the identification of ANFs in forage legumes.