PhD in Biological Sciences and Applied Biotechnologies

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Curriculum vitae

Phd thesis

The title of my thesis is "Tracking biodiversity of plant-microbe interactions in urban environments". 

My activity started the 1st of February 2023. My project is included in the Activity 2 of Spoke 5 of the National Biodiversity Future Center, which deals with urban soil biodiversity. More particurarly, I am studying the microbial diversity of urban soils and plant microbiota in these environments (Task 2.1). 

In order to do so, I am looking at the topsoil biodiversity and I am trying to see how the history of a park and the origin of its material could influence the microbiota.

This knowledge would contribute to the improvement of ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces and the success of re-forestation projects towards an enhancement of the quality of life of citizens.

Research activities

In autumn 2022, a pilot experiment has been set up considering different public parks in the city of Turin. We sampled soils under two different plant coverages (tree and grassland) from three historical parks, five recently established parks (established after 2000) and two natural/undisturbed environments. A shotgun metagenomics approach was performed on samples using Illumina sequencing. Physico-chemical parameters of soils and vegetation cover were assessed too. Reads were then assigned with Kaiju to profile Virus, Prokaryotes, Fungi and microbial Eukaryotes communities diversity and structure. Depending on the age of the studied park, functionnal predictions are showing diverse results regarding proportions of present pathogens for example. Moreover, the age of the park and the type of vegetation cover are both significant in explaining the beta diversity of Prokaryotes and Fungi. We are currently analyzing metagenomics libraries to better characterize the functional diversity of the microbial communities using DRAM.

In parallel soil samples from Turin and its surroundings, under more or less disturbed environments, were collected in collaboration with the team focussing on the Arthropod commnities.

Finally, soil samples under grassland coverage were collected at a greater scale in other Italian cities (Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples and Turin once more) in summer 2023. DNA has been extracted and we are waiting for sequencing.