Ph.D. Defense Harnesses Artificial Intelligence to Advance the Agriculture of the Future
Defesa de Tese de Doutorado
Marcos José Andrade Viana's Ph.D. defense presents an innovative approach that integrates Artificial Intelligence, Bioinformatics, and Structural Biology to identify genes and molecular mechanisms associated with abiotic stress tolerance in sorghum, contributing to the development of more resilient crops.
The BioSys Lab proudly celebrates the Ph.D. defense of Marcos José Andrade Viana, a researcher at Embrapa and a Ph.D. graduate from the Interunit Graduate Program in Bioinformatics at UFMG. Conducted through a collaboration between LBS and Embrapa, the research represents an important advance in the application of Artificial Intelligence to address major challenges in modern agriculture.
The dissertation investigated molecular mechanisms involved in sorghum tolerance to low phosphorus availability and aluminum toxicity, two major constraints affecting agricultural productivity in tropical soils. To achieve this, the study integrated Artificial Intelligence, AlphaFold-based structural modeling, molecular interaction analysis, and multi-omics data integration.
Among the main findings are the identification of potential molecular mechanisms involved in aluminum sensing, the elucidation of the structural activation of the SbPSTOL1 protein family associated with phosphorus-use efficiency, and the integration of transcriptomic, phosphoproteomic, and QTL data to prioritize novel candidate genes. The study also generated structural models that will support future experimental validation and crop breeding programs.
The dissertation was jointly supervised by Prof. Raquel Cardoso de Melo-Minardi and Dr. Jurandir Vieira de Magalhães, strengthening the collaboration between UFMG and Embrapa in the development of innovative computational solutions for agriculture.
We congratulate Dr. Marcos José Andrade Viana on this outstanding achievement and for his significant contribution to advancing computational technologies that accelerate scientific discovery and promote a more sustainable, resilient, and productive agriculture.