Presentations & conferences
Museo Scienze Naturali Alto Adige - Fitoplasmi: patogeni o risorse?
The Museum of Natural Sciences of South Tyrol hosts a lecture on phytoplasmas – tiny bacteria-like microorganisms without a cell wall, known above all for the damage they cause to vines and apple trees – and their still partly unexplored potential.
What happens when a bacterium decides to travel light, shedding almost all its DNA to become the perfect parasite? The lecture explores the evolutionary trajectory of phytoplasmas: small unauthorised inhabitants of the plant vascular system, stripped down to the bare minimum to become the perfect biological hacker. They are widely known for affecting key crops in South Tyrol such as vines and apple trees – but is their presence always harmful? The boundary between damage and benefit is often thinner than it appears.
Through PhytoWatch, the Citizen Science project of the Laimburg Research Centre, every citizen can become an active sentinel and help researchers unravel the mysteries surrounding these microorganisms.
The speaker is Mattia Tabarelli, an evolutionary biologist with a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology. Since 2021 he has worked as a researcher in the molecular biology laboratory of the Laimburg Research Centre, focusing primarily on the molecular interactions between phytoplasmas and plants.
The lecture is part of the meeting series of the South Tyrol Flora Working Group.
What happens when a bacterium decides to travel light, shedding almost all its DNA to become the perfect parasite? The lecture explores the evolutionary trajectory of phytoplasmas: small unauthorised inhabitants of the plant vascular system, stripped down to the bare minimum to become the perfect biological hacker. They are widely known for affecting key crops in South Tyrol such as vines and apple trees – but is their presence always harmful? The boundary between damage and benefit is often thinner than it appears.
Through PhytoWatch, the Citizen Science project of the Laimburg Research Centre, every citizen can become an active sentinel and help researchers unravel the mysteries surrounding these microorganisms.
The speaker is Mattia Tabarelli, an evolutionary biologist with a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology. Since 2021 he has worked as a researcher in the molecular biology laboratory of the Laimburg Research Centre, focusing primarily on the molecular interactions between phytoplasmas and plants.
The lecture is part of the meeting series of the South Tyrol Flora Working Group.
Cookie settings