RESEARCHER
michela.chiumenti(AT)ipsp.cnr.it
080.544.3071
publications: Orcid
personal details and research activity: People
Curriculum Vitae
High-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies have become an important tool in phytopathology, since they allow either the identification and characterization of infectious agents, without the need of their prior knowledge, or the study of molecular interactions between such organisms and their host plants. In this context, since my Ph.D. in plant health in 2011, I started deepening my bioinformatics and statistical knowledge applied not only to viral diagnostics and metagenomics but also to the virus/viroid-plant interactions.
Currently, my major research interests are viral metagenomics of viruses and viroids in woody plants and molecular, biological and phylogenetic characterization of these infectious agents. Metagenomics is done through the analysis of libraries obtained either through sequencing-by-synthesis or nanopore technologies.
Furthermore, I am also involved in HTS experiments aimed at investigating the molecular interaction between virus/viroid and plants, through the analysis of smallRNA, degradome and trascriptome datasets. I recently broadened my bioinformatics skills to the study of microbial communities, particularly to the endosymbionts of the psyllid Trioza erytreae. This insect, recently identified in the Iberic peninsula, is the vector of Candidatus Liberibacter africanus, one of the two causal agents of the citrus “huanglongbing” disease.
Since 2018, in the frame of a cooperation with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), I am carrying out consultancy activities for the drafting of scientific opinions on the risk posed by the introduction in the EU territory of non-EU viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas.