Turin Headquarter

Management of water resources in East African river basins is a sensitive issue, linked both to food security and water management in agriculture. Water management is strictly interlinked with the sustainability of other natural resources, such as biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, soil, energy and with livelihoods of people. In many East-African areas, the benefits of agricultural resources are endangered by demographic pressure, unplanned rural development and lack of alternative livelihood opportunities causing deforestation, overgrazing, soil and water degradation and – on the socio-economic side – reduction of agricultural productivity and…

Bio-based solutions, such as Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), are a sustainable agriculture practice to promote crop yield under increasing stress conditions caused by Climate change (CC). The Joint Lab project between Italy and Pakistan will assess the effects of PGPR strains selected from arid environments on the performance of model plants (i.e. wheat, pea and Arundo) subjected to water deficit also in interaction with [CO2] enrichment. Physiological, biochemical and molecular analyses will evaluate plant responses to CC-driven stress during PGPR colonization. Soil metagenomics will verify the impact on soil…

The aim of the Project is to identify genes of insect vectors involved in specificity of phytoplasma transmission mechanisms by verifying their role in vivo through functional analysis. Customized molecular reagents, such as recombinant phytoplasma membrane proteins and specific antibodies, will be produced and characterized. These molecules will be used for the analysis of protein interactions with different species of vectors, allowing to identify the insect proteins involved in the interaction with phytoplasmas. RNA interference (RNAi) technique will be used to silence insect genes coding for the proteins previously identified,…

Hazelnut cultivation in Piedmont is a rapidly growing agricultural sector characterized by: i) constant and significant increase in the total area planted; ii) high quality profile of its production, based on the cultivar ‘Tonda Gentile Trilobata’ (TGT). This favorable situation is contrasted by the negative impact of climate change on agriculture. Water is a precious resource, and it is now necessary to optimize its use in a more sustainable manner also by powering the selection of rootstocks and new genotypes. The aims of BREEDINCORE are: i) to study the behavior…