

Itay Gonda Lab
Genetics and genomics of aromatic and medicinal plants

Agricultural
Research
Organization
Volcani center

Itay Gonda, Ph.D.
Group leader

Itay Gonda, Ph.D.
Group leader
We have a new paper accepted in Plant Science on fusarium resistance of sweet basil! Check it out here, or here.
NEW Funded (2021)
BARD, Us-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development, extended the funding to our study on "Next-generation basil: Mapping chilling-tolerance in sweet basil using next-generation sequencing for a long-lasting product". Collaboration with Jim Simon and Andrew Wyenandt from Rutgers University, Nativ Dudai, David Kenigsbuch and Adi Faigenboim from ARO


People have been used plants for medicine, perfumes and as aromatic herbs for thousands of years. The biological activity attributed to these plants is a result of various chemical compounds known as specialized metabolites. Aromatic and medicinal plants are valued for their ability to accumulate such compounds which are beneficial for humans. They possess a huge chemical diversity that contributes to our kitchen, medicine cabinet and perfume bouquet. This diversity presents both between species and within a species. The genetic mechanisms that drive this chemical diversity are largely unknown. Also, the active compounds in some of the important plants are unknown or their biosynthetic pathway is still a riddle.
Our goal is to bring state-of-the-art methods to the field of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants to promote both science and breeding. That includes (but not limited to) sequencing-based genotyping and QTL mapping, transcriptomic analyses, metabolomics and genome editing.



