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Luciana Rosso

Research Scientist
Professional Headshot Luciana Rosso
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Location:

533 Latham Hall,
220 Ag-Quad Lane,
Blacksburg, VA 24061
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Contact:

luciana@vt.edu
540-231-9682

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Overview

I have a research appointment in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, specializing in soybean and small-grain breeding, genetics, molecular biology, and crop improvement. My research focuses on developing improved soybean varieties with enhanced seed quality, nutritional value, protein digestibility, and climate resilience. Throughout my career, I have coordinated multidisciplinary research involving laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies and collaborated with faculty, students, industry partners, commodity boards, and federal agencies. I have supervised and mentored more than 20 undergraduate and graduate students, contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed publications, and supported numerous state, federal, and industry-funded projects. In 2025, I received the SPES Outstanding Research Faculty Award in recognition of my contributions to research, leadership, collaboration, and service.

Expertise

  • Soybean and Small-Grain Breeding and Genetics
  • Molecular Biology and Genomics
  • Seed Quality and Composition
  • Protein Digestibility and Antinutritional Factors
  • Food-Grade Soybean

Education

  • Ph.D. Plant Science, University of Arkansas, 2007
  • Licenciada en Ciencias Biológicas, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999

My research focuses on soybean and small-grain breeding, genetics, molecular biology, seed quality, and crop improvement. I use traditional breeding, molecular markers, genotyping, genome editing, HPLC, and NIRS to develop improved varieties with enhanced nutritional value, protein digestibility, seed composition, yield, and climate resilience. My work integrates laboratory, greenhouse, and field research and includes food-grade soybeans, edamame, antinutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors and lectins, and high-throughput methods for seed-quality analysis.

Senior Research Scientist | 2007–Present
Soybean Breeding and Genetics
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech

Senior Research Scientist | 2011–Present
Small-Grain Breeding and Genetics
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech

Research Associate | 2007
Department of Plant Pathology
University of Arkansas

  • SPES Outstanding Research Faculty Award, Virginia Tech, 2025
  • TPSC Research Staff Award, Virginia Tech, 2022
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Scholar, University of Arkansas, 2005
  • Gamma Sigma Delta Annual Competition, Second Place—Oral Presentation, University of Arkansas, 2007
  • Gamma Sigma Delta Annual Competition, Second Place—Poster Presentation, University of Arkansas, 2007
  • CONICET Postgraduate Fellowship, Argentina, 2001–2003

  • Zheng, Y., Denbow, C., Granja, M. O., Pilot, G., Wang, Z., Rosso, M. L., & Zhang, B. (2026). Improved SDS-PAGE method for quantifying the 11S/7S ratio in soybean storage proteins. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Accepted.
  • Xiao, R., Rosso, L., Reilly, P., Walker, T., Zhang, B., & Huang, H. (2025). Reducing heat without impacting quality: Optimizing trypsin inhibitor inactivation process in low-TI soybean. Foods, 14(17), 3039.
  • Fletcher, E. B., Rosso, M. L., Walker, T., Huang, H., Morota, G., & Zhang, B. (2025). Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy calibration for trypsin inhibitor in soybean seed and meal. Agriculture, 15(10), 1062.
  • Okedigba, A. O., Ng, E., Deegbey, M., Rosso, M. L., et al. (2025). Soybean lectin crosslinks membranes by binding sulfatide in a curvature-dependent manner. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 73, 14020–14031.
  • Rosso, M. L., Zhang, B., Williams, M. M. II, Fu, X., & Ross, J. (2024). Editorial: Everything Edamame: Biology, production, nutrition, sensory and economics, Volume II. Frontiers in Plant Science, 15, 1488772.
  • Wang, Z., Shea, Z., Rosso, L., et al. (2023). CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing generates Kunitz trypsin inhibitor mutants with associated molecular markers. Frontiers in Plant Science.
  • Rosso, M. L., Shang, C., Song, Q., Escamilla, D., Gillenwater, J., & Zhang, B. (2021). Development of breeder-friendly KASP markers to select low concentration of Kunitz trypsin inhibitor in soybean seeds. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22, 2675.
  • M. Luciana Rosso; Chao Shang; Qijian Song; Diana Escamilla; Jay Gillenwater and Bo Zhang. 2021. Development of breeder-friendly KASP markers to select low concentration of Kunitz trypsin inhibitor in soybean seeds. Int. J. Mol. Sci. (IF 4.9) 22, 2675. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22052675.