Unravelling dynamics and composition of apple and pear bark microbiota under different chemical inputs by metabarcoding approaches.

Supervisor : Ilaria Pertot

One of the main concerns in apple production is the massive use of pesticides to control fungal pathogens, among which apple scab (caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis) is the most dangerous worldwide. The development of scab-resistant varieties allows to reduce the number of fungicide treatments that are also normally able to keep under control other secondary pathogens. The lower fungicide coverage gives rise to the onset of these diseases that can cause severe damages, forcing farmers to restore chemical treatments. The aim of this project is to firstly explore bark microflora diversity and composition in order to have an overview of bark-residing microbes between different species and varieties. In a second way, it is to evaluate the impact of fungicide treatments on these microbial communities, particularly focusing on concerning secondary pathogens to determine disease dynamics depending on management, environmental, ontological and genetic variables. A targeted-metagenomics approach will identify structure and dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities in different environments and integrated protection programs. Moreover, pathogen dynamics will be better investigated in greenhouse experiments following a double approach that integrates epidemiological and molecular tools. This work on the apple bark microbiome is expected to improve the knowledge of microbial dynamics under different plant protection programs to understand their effect on microbial communities and develop modern tools to monitor secondary pathogens.

Biography and contacts

Elena Arrigoni was born in 1990 in Pescia (PT)-Italy. She graduated in Biotechnology (110/110 cum laude) at the University of Florence in 2012 and in Plant and Microbial Biotechnology (110/110 cum laude) at the University of Pisa in 2015. In 2015 she gained a five-months research fellowship at the Viticultural and Oenological Research Lab belonging to the University of Pisa. In the same year she started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agriculture Science and Biotechnology” of the University of Udine (curriculum “Pests biology and defense”) at the Fondazione Edmund Mach in San Michele all’Adige (TN).

elena.arrigoni@fmach.it

elena.arrigoni@spes.uniud.it

[Phone 0461-615507]