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Dott. Luca Nerva

  • Phd: 29 th cycle
  • Matriculation number: 325597

Phd thesis

Searching for mycoviruses in a collection of marine fungi isolated from the seagrass Posidonia oceanica

Mycoviruses, discovered in the ’60 as a disease of edible mushrooms, are viruses able to replicate in fungal cells. The vast majority of known mycoviruses have a dsRNA genome, but positive and negative ssRNA and a circular ssDNA genomes infecting fungi have also been reported. Interest for these symbionts comes from the fact that some of them are able to change the phenotype of the host. The lifestyle of these symbionts is mainly intracellular, and their transmission occurs by anastomosis, conidiation or sporulation. Mycoviruses seem to be very host-specific by infecting just one or few host species. However, this point of view is changing in light of recent findings of mycovirus extracellular lifestyle. Moreover, presence of mycoviruses with highly conserved sequences in different fungal species coming from the same environment show the possibility of interspecifc infection with still unknow mechanisms.

We screened a collection of marine fungi isolated from different districts of Posidonia oceanica, a marine plant endemic in the Mediterranean sea, and we characterized 12 new mycoviruses belonging to different dsRNA and ssRNA virus families.

We are now working on biological characterization and evolution aspects of this viral collection.

Last update: 02/10/2019 12:13
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