MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE MICROBE-PLANT INTERACTIONS AGR298

Description

Research group that studies the nutritional, pathogenic or mutualistic relationships of bacteria with plants of agricultural interest. To achieve this, we implement a competitive, integrative and multidisciplinary work model that integrates ecology and microbial communities, genetics, structural biology, and the plant's immunological and physiological response. Their lines of research have received national, regional and European public funding (ERC-Proof of Concept), as well as collaboration with companies in the agrobiotechnology field. The group has numerous publications in journals of high scientific impact and results protected through patents. Their objective is to develop sustainable models of production and protection of crops of agricultural interest.

Research Topics

Protection and sustainable production of horticultural crops. Bacillus-horticultural mutualistic interaction. Biocontrol of plant diseases. Immunization of plants by molecules of bacterial origin.
Bacterial ecology. Microbial populations in plants, interactions between microbes and their impact on crop health.
Precision agriculture. Nanotechnology-bacterial molecules in seed treatments to improve crop performance and resilience to biotic or abiotic stresses.
Virulence and host range of Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas savastanoi.
Secretion of extracellular proteins in phytopathogenic bacteria.
Microbial biotechnology. Development of beneficial microbes in the fight against phytopathogens.

Scientific-Technical Services

Study of beneficial contribution of bacteria to plants.
Characterization of metabolites produced by beneficial bacteria.
Molecular biology of Gram-positive and Gram-negative.
Transcriptomics and metabolomics of microbial interactions and plant-bacteria interactions.
Detection and diagnosis of phytopathogenic bacteria.
Production and maintenance of olive and oleander tissues under in vitro culture conditions.