Tabarelli Mattia
Title: Understanding and improving resistance of Malus to Apple Proliferation Phytoplasma
Supervisor: Dr. Mickael Malnoy
The bacterial pathogen Candidatus Phytoplasma mali (P. mali), the causal agent of apple proliferation, is a major threat of apple in Europe; Most of the apple cultivars grown in northern Italy and central Europe are highly or susceptible to the pathogen.
Much progress has been made in unraveling the molecular basis of phytoplasma infection, and just recently the first functional effector protein of P. mali and its proteinaceous interaction partners in Malus x domestica have been described. Nevertheless, many molecular mechanisms underlying phytoplasma disease development and resistance remain elusive.
This project, cofounded by the Edmund Mach Foundation (Tn) and the Laimburg research Centre (Bz), will combine transcriptome analysis, genetic engineering, and plant pathology in order to characterize important pathways and the function of genes involved in the resistance of Malus to AP. Candidate genes of Malus will be stably transformed into apple, then the phenotype and resistance behavior of these generated cisgenic apples will be analyzed.
This project gives a unique opportunity to gain further information to better understand not only the phenomenon of resistance against apple proliferation phytoplasma, but also the general mechanisms underlying plant pathogen interaction.
Biography and contacts
Mattia Tabarelli was born in 1991 in Bolzano, Italy. In 2013 he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biology (92/110) at the University of Padua where he also obtained his master’s degree in Evolutionary Biology (110/110 cum laude) in 2016, with a thesis in compared immunology which aimed to characterize some genes and proteins related to the activation of the Complement System in an Urochordate. In 2017 he started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agricultural Science and Biotechnology” of the University of Udine between the Edmund Mach Foundation of San Michele all’Adige (Tn) and the Laimburg Research Centre (Bz).
tabarelli.mattia@spes.uniud.it