PhD student profile, Valentina Riva

PhD Student: Valentina Riva

Tutor: Prof. Sara Borin, DeFENS

Dean: Prof. Ella Pagliarini

Research area: Agri-Environment

Research topic

Selection and characterisation of plant growth promoting bacteria able to improve water use efficiency in agriculture

Project Synopsis

My PhD project is based on the set up and characterization of large bacteria collections from the rhizosphere and endosphere of different plants collected from Mediterranean African Countries (MACs), where water shortage represents a major problem hampering crop efficiency. The perspective is to identify microbial resources and positive plant-bacteria interactions to i) increase crop resistance to drought and salinity and ii) improve the efficiency of Constructed Wetland as a tertiary treatment to allow the municipal wastewater reuse in agriculture, through the addition of Plant Growth Promoting (PGP) bacteria.

Project keywords

environmental biotechnology, Plant Growth Promoting (PGP) bacteria, drought, constructed wetland

Contacts

Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS)

via Mangiagalli 25 (Milano), 3^rd floor, Office 3011, tel. 02 503 19115

valentina.riva@unimi.it

Collaborations

EU H2020 Project MADFORWATER Consortium ( http://www.madforwater.eu/ )

Department of Biochemical Engineering & Environmental Biotechnology – Technical University of Crete

Sponsor

Fellowship sponsor: Università degli Studi di Milano

Publication

Valentina Riva, Sara Borin, Francesca Mapelli, Matteo Brochetti, Elena Crotti, Ameur Cherif, Hanen Cherif, Bilel Bejaoui, Redouane Choukr-Allah, Ahmed Rashed, Mustafa El Fahl, Nicola La Maddalena “Plant growth promoting bacteria: a sustainable tool to minimize water footprint in agriculture in arid and semi-arid zones”. Oral presentation within the session “Microorganisms for rural development” at the international miCROPe 2017 SYMPOSIUM MICROBE-ASSISTED CROP PRODUCTION OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES & NEEDS in Vienna from December 4^th-7^th 2017.

Valentina Riva, Francesca Mapelli, Evdokia Syranidou, Nikolas Kalagerakis, Redouane Choukr-Allah, Sara Borin “Plant growth promoting bacteria in phytodepuration systems: a promising tool to minimize water footprint in agriculture”. Oral presentation at the “15^th International Phytotechnology Conference” in Novi Sad (Serbia) from 1^st to 5^th of October 2018.