Science Associates

•Environmental microbiology (soil microorganisms, plant symbiosis) •Interactions between soil microbial populations and plants (crop cultures, shrubs, trees). •Characterization of soil microbial communities (symbiotic and saprotrophic fungi, bacteria, archaea) in natural (Alpine, Mediterranean ecosystems) and agricultural environments (subject to land use gradients) • Metagenomics and meta-barcodes of the soil and plant microbiome (NGS technologies) • Soil biological and functional diversity, Soil microbial indicators • Biotechnological application of microbial inocula based on Plant Growth Promoting Organisms PGPOs (AM fungi and bacteria) as biofertilizers for low impact crops • AM fungal propagation and plant mycorrhization with specific AM fungal isolates and natural inoculum –