The Holoherbarium research project, conducted at the Istituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante of the CNR of Turin in collaboration with the University of Turin and Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris, focuses on the study of “ancient” plant microbiomes. In fact, the roots of herbarium plants contain molecular traces of their “ancient” microbiomes, in the form of DNA and proteins. Therefore molecular study of plants collected “before”, and “during” the exponential “acceleration” of global changes should inform us on how and to what extent these changes have durably affected the plant microbiota, widely recognized as an essential component of plant health. The information gathered on microbial communities associated with past plants could be used in agro-ecology to restore potentially polluted agricultural land and to improve the agronomic characteristics of cultivated plants.
