Overview

Zsuzsanna Kovácsné Békefi is a research fellow at the Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Research Centre for Fruit Growing She obtained her Ph.D degree in 2005, her thesis deals with compatibility and pollination of sweet cherry. She has been the leader of the cherry breeding group as well as the activities and research among Prunus genetic resources. 

Her research focuses on the utilization of genetic markers in fruit breeding, with special focus on sweet-and sour cherries.  The main traits she is interested in is fruit size, flowering time and sour cherry skin and flesh colour where her research group identifies markers and analyses correlation between phenotype and genotype. Beside flowering time, dormancy of Prunus species is studied by her group in order to respond climatic challenges, especially winter- and spring frosts.

She takes part in the European genebank activities under the aegis of Bioversity. She made significant contributions in the work of ECPGR Prunus Working Group.

She authored and co-authored 73 research articles in high-impact scientific journals.

Dr. Zsuzsanna Kovácsné Békefi has collaborated with research groups across Europe regarding cherry breeding and genebank activities.

Research keywords:
marker assisted selection, Prunus, genetic resources, cherry, fruit quality

Publications

Desiderio F., Szilagyi S., Békefi Z., Boronkay G., Usenik V., Milić B., Mihali C., Giurgiulescu L. (2023): Polyphenolic and Fruit Colorimetric Analysis of Hungarian Sour Cherry Genebank Accessions, AGRICULTURE-BASEL 13: (7) p. 1287. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13071287

Keleta, B. T., Szalay, L., Ladányi, M., Békefi, Zs. (2023): Flower bud development of almond cultivars based on three different methods. FOLIA HORTICULTURAE 35 : 2 pp. 381-393. https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2023-0027

Szilágyi S., Horváth-Kupi T., Desiderio F., Bekefi Z. (2022): Evaluation of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars for fruit size by FW_G2a QTL analysis and phenotypic characterization, SCIENTIA HORTICULTURAE 292: 110656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2021.110656

Barreneche T., Cárcamo de la Concepción M., Blouin-Delmas M., Ordidge M., Nybom H., Lacis G., Feldmane D., Sedlak J., Meland M., Kaldmäe H., Kahu K., Békefi Z., Stanivuković S., Đurić G., Höfer M., Galik M., Schüller E., Spornberger A., Sirbu S., Drogoudi P., Agulheiro-Santos A.C., Kodad O., Vokurka A., Lateur M., Fernández Fernández F., Giovannini D., Quero-García J. (2021): SSR-Based Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Structure of Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.) from 19 Countries in Europe, PLANTS-BASEL 1983: (10) pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10101983

Papp D, Békefi Zs., Balotai B., Tóth M. (2015): Identification of marker alleles linked to fire blight resistance QTLs in apple genotypes, PLANT BREEDING 134: (3) pp. 345-349. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.12258


Projects

Dr. Zsuzsanna Kovácsné Békefi
Institute of Horticultural Sciences
Campus address: H-1223 Budapest, Park str. 2.
Kovacsne.Bekefi.Zsuzsanna@uni-mate.hu
Kovacsne.Bekefi.Zsuzsanna@uni-mate.hu

MTMT: 10013566
Scopus: 40561064300