Alice Anzalone

Ciclo: XXXIII

Data inizio: 31/10/2017

Curriculum: Agroalimentari

Borsa: MIUR PON R&I

Titolo tesi: Selection of endophytic bacterial communities, genes and secondary metabolites for the sustainable cultivation of tomatoes in greenhouse

Abstract: This thesis project aimed to acquire the bases for biotechnological interventions on the tomato microbiome in order to improve growing conditions of the crop its resistance and resilience to stresses and the characteristics that lead to the formation of quality itself in the perspective of sustainable agriculture focused to the protection of the environment and the consumer. Tomato belongs to the Solanaceae family and is the second most important fruit or vegetable crop next to potato. The intensive management required to mitigate serious economic losses, has encouraged the search of alternative approaches for the control of tomato diseases, including the use of biological control agents. In our model study we used different approaches to study microbial communities of tomato root compartments in a real-word environment represented by an intensive tomato cultivation area characterized by extra-seasonal productions in the greenhouse. A metagenomics approach by amplicon sequencing was used for a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the community structure and composition related to the formation and composition of the bacterial and fungal tomato communities in commercial conditions from nursery production materials to greenhouse commercial materials. The analysis revealed substantial differences in the composition and the assembly of microbial communities in tomatoes grown in agricultural soil or in cultivation outside soil using a coconut fibre substrate, even if they come from the same batch of seeds and seedlings nursery here also analysed. In particular, microbial communities of soilless grown plants appeared to be affected by bacterial communities formed in the nursery, while plants grown in agricultural soil in a short time have been affected by it. Although in recent years the advances in next-generation omics technologies have led to the possibility of revealing plant-associated microbiomes, culture-dependent methods are still necessary to bioprospect natural diversity as a source of new tools for sustainable agriculture. The cultivation approach was therefore applied to explore and compare the natural biodiversity of tomato root-associated bacterial communities in farms with plants grown in agricultural soil and form the endosphere from seeds and roots of plants at different stage of growth and grown in different cultivation systems (i.e. the samples analysed with the metagenomic approach). In both experiment a phenotyping scheme based on the analysis of traits correlated Plant Growth Promotion and Biocontrol activity was applied. More than 500 characterized bacterial isolates were analysed and constitute a biobank for further work. More than 100 strains were assigned to a known taxon by 16S rRNA gene (rDNA) sequencing. In planta activity against phytopathogenic bacteria of a subset of Bacillus and Pseudomonas isolates was also assessed. The draft genome sequences of two Pseudomonas strains were also obtained.

Tutor: Catara

Data Conseguimento Titolo:

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Email: anzalone.alice@libero.it

Periodi all'estero- Sede e data: TUGraz, University of Technology, Graz, Austria (from 15/03/2019 to 15/09/2019)

Esperienze post-Dottorato ed attuale occupazione: Docente supplente scuola secondaria superiore