New generation plant protection products: ecological approach and side effects

Supervisor: Dr. Ilaria Pertot

Co-Supervisor: Dr. Michele Perazzolli

Increasing concerns about the negative impacts of chemical pesticides on human health and the environment require the development of safe alternatives to conventional disease control methods. Elicitors, including beneficial microorganisms and exogenous molecules of both biological and synthetic origin, can stimulate plant defenses against pathogens, and they represent some of the most promising complementary/alternative strategies to reduce the massive use of fungicides.
Protein hydrolysates represent a wide category of plant elicitors, and consist of a mixture of small peptide fragments and free amino acids, originating from animal, vegetal or microbial proteins by chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis. They could act as biostimulants by influencing the growth process and metabolism, or they can trigger plant defense responses. The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of some protein hydrolysates to stimulate plant immunity, in order to develop a biopesticide for the biological control of crop disease.
Firstly, we will elaborate an effective method to perform the protein hydrolysis on products from different sources. Then, we will test their efficacy against grapevine downy mildew and zucchini powdery mildew under controlled conditions. Subsequently, we will investigate their mechanisms of action, considering their potential induction of plant resistance (i.e. the induction of defense-related genes), and their direct toxic impact on plant pathogens. Finally, thanks to metagenomic approaches, we will evaluate if these protein hydrolysates could alter the composition of phyllosphere microbial populations, which may display biocontrol activities and help the plant to fight the pathogen invasion.

Biography and contacts
Martina Cappelletti was born in 1984 in Trento (Italy). In 2010 she graduated in Evolutionary Biology (110/110 cum laude) at Padua University (Italy), discussing a thesis about the evolution of the photoprotection mechanisms in photosyntetic organisms upon land colonization (Supervisor Dr. T. Morosinotto).
From 2012 to 2014 she worked as research collaborator at Trento University (Dept. of Industrial Engineering) in the field of low-temperature pasteurization of food substrates (Supervisor Dr. S. Spilimbergo).
In 2014 she started the Doctoral course at the PhD School “Agricultural Science and Biotechnology” of the University of Udine (curriculum “Biology and plant production”), under the supervision of Dr. I. Pertot and Dr. M. Perazzolli at Fondazione E. Mach, Trento.

 - cappelletti.martina@spes.uniud.it
 - martina.cappelletti@fmach.it
 - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martina_Cappelletti2
 -Phone: +39 0461 615 506