Sara Buoso
Physiological, biochemical and molecular changes in grapevine leaf phloem affected by stolbur disease.
Supervisor : Simonetta Santi
Grapevine can be severely affected by phytoplasmas, which are plant-pathogenic prokaryotes (belonging to the class Mollicutes) transmitted by phloem-feeding insect vectors. Bois noir (BN) is a grapevine disease associated with the presence of phytoplasmas of the stolbur group. It causes symptoms such as abnormal lignification of canes, short internodes, flower abortion, curling and discoloration of leaves, and these are accompanied by a dramatic reduction in yield. Interestingly, a spontaneous remission of symptoms in previously symptomatic plants, called “recovery”, can sometimes be observed also in BN-infected grapevines.
Despite its severe affection of grapevine, the molecular aspects of BN are still poorly understood. Our project is aimed at discovering tools and strategies against this pest elucidating the cellular and molecular interactions that drive disease and “recovery”. As phytoplasmas have been found mainly in leaf phloem elements, from where they spread moving through pores of plates, our analysis focuses on molecular changes in leaf phloem after infection and during recovery. A single-cell approach has been shown to enhance sensitivity in detecting responses localized at the infection site. Isolation of phloem parenchyma cells and companion cell-sieve element complexes from paraffin-embedded leaf sections by laser microdissection (LM) applied in combination with New Generation Sequencing (NGS) is used to decipher mechanisms at the basis of plant response. Interaction will be analysed in grapevine as well as in model plants like tomato (which is infected by the same phytoplasma strains) and Arabidopsis..
Biography and contacts
Sara Buoso was born in 1990 in Portogruaro, Italy. In 2012 graduated in Agricultural Biotechnology (108/110) and 2014 graduated in Biotechnology applied to food security and nutrition Master (110/110 cum laude) at Padova University (Italy).
In November 2015 she started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agriculture Science and Biotechnology” at the University of Udine.
[Phone 0432558675]