Projects

Flavescence dorée (FD), a quarantine disease that afflicts the viticulture of Southern Europe, is a real threat to the regional economy. Since the management of FD is based exclusively on preventive control strategies that are both ecologically impacting (mandatory insecticide treatments) and expensive (elimination of infected plants and their replacement with certified plant material), the project aims to identify alternative and sustainable control strategies of the diseases, based on the identification of genes potentially involved in the resistance / tolerance of grapevine to FD. In a previous project (RETrOFiD) possible…

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The GRAPEFIT project was conceived to deepen the physiological and molecular mechanisms at the basis of grapevine adaptability to drought events either occurring over a restricted time span or long-lasting. The main objectives of the scheduled research activities will be: 1) to demonstrate whether vines in vitro regenerated through somatic embryogenesis (named somaclones) are more prompt than the mother plants to face sudden severe water stress and/or display better physiological performances following stress relief (recovery); 2) to elucidate the molecular bases underpinning the grapevine physiological adaptation to recurrent and long-lasting…

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Vineyard pest management involves a considerable cost, both from an economic and environmental point of view. The European Commission has already decided to cut down on many pesticides, including copper-based fungicides and neonicotinoid insecticides. There is therefore a need to identify new pesticides or to improve the already available ones leading to a still profitable, but more environmentally friendly viticulture. The present project, through integrated agronomic, metabolic, technological, genetic and molecular approaches, intends to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative solutions to be included in integrated pest management strategies, with the…

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Despite the overwhelming amount of recent advanced studies, the current knowledge of the plant microbiome is far from being complete. Unravelling the complexity of the microbial systems within the same host and their interactions with external factors represents a major challenge. The current project aims at the production and use of gnotobiotic plants and innovative smart boxes to screen and exploit the microbial diversity present in natural ecosystems in the optic to improve plant growth and tolerance to diseases and abiotic factors. The proposed smart boxes will be developed to…

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