My main interest is to understand the mechanisms used by bacteria to survive in different environments.
Bacteria are unicellular microscopic organisms that are found almost everywhere on Earth. They can colonize different environments and interact with different hosts (animals, plants, insects). Depending on how this interaction is, we can distinguish between beneficial and pathogenic bacteria. In fact, most bacteria are beneficial, and they are vital for the planet ecosystems!
We study what are the pathways and genetic determinants that lead to some bacteria being beneficial, and others pathogenic. We want to disentangle that because, during the last years, there has been a change in attitude in society towards chemical-related products used in agriculture. Novel eco-friendly alternative strategies are sought to control plant diseases (such as the use of “biocontrol” beneficial bacteria that act against pathogens and stimulate plant growth). But parallel to the development of such bioinoculants we need to better understand the mechanisms that allow them to colonize plants, persist in soil, antagonize other soil microorganisms, or become pathogenic.
Bacteria are unicellular microscopic organisms that are found almost everywhere on Earth. They can colonize different environments and interact with different hosts (animals, plants, insects). Depending on how this interaction is, we can distinguish between beneficial and pathogenic bacteria. In fact, most bacteria are beneficial, and they are vital for the planet ecosystems!
We study what are the pathways and genetic determinants that lead to some bacteria being beneficial, and others pathogenic. We want to disentangle that because, during the last years, there has been a change in attitude in society towards chemical-related products used in agriculture. Novel eco-friendly alternative strategies are sought to control plant diseases (such as the use of “biocontrol” beneficial bacteria that act against pathogens and stimulate plant growth). But parallel to the development of such bioinoculants we need to better understand the mechanisms that allow them to colonize plants, persist in soil, antagonize other soil microorganisms, or become pathogenic.