Ph.D. GRADUATE SCHOOL IN Land, Environment and Biodiversity DEPARTMENT OF Agricultural and Environmental Science – Production, Landscape and Agroenergy COURSE IN Agricultural Ecology – cycle XXVIII The interplay between photorespiration and iron deficiency DISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC FIELD - AGR/13 - DOCTORAL CANDIDATE Fabio Marco Casiraghi DOCTORAL ADVISOR Prof. Graziano Zocchi Ph.D. SCHOOL COORDINATOR Prof. Graziano Zocchi A.A. 2015-2016 Activities carried out during the three-year Ph.D. Common Courses of the Ph.D. Graduate School Land, Environment and Biodiversity - Microscopy School – prof. Franco Faoro – Dr. Marco Saracchi – Università degli Studi di Milano 16, 17, 18 April 2013 - Corso online “formazione generale dei lavoratori” – sicurezza sul lavoro, Università degli Studi di Milano, 22 October 2013 International Ph.D. School - BIONUT - International Ph.D. Summer school “Biochemical and Genetic dissection of control of plant mineral nutrition Università degli Studi di Milano – Gargnano (BS) 23-27 June 2012 - International Ph.D. winter school, Rhizosphere at work: soil- plant-microbes interactions, from plant nutrition to soil remediation. Società Italiana di Chimica Agraria, Piacenza, Italy 17-20 February 2014 - International Ph.D. winter school, Feeding the world: the contribution of research in agricultural chemistry to sustainable development Soil, plant and biomasses in a changing environment Società Italiana di Chimica Agraria, Piacenza (PC) 9-12 February 2015 Scientific experience in National Research Institutions - Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agro-ambientali - Università di Pisa – Pisa. In vivo determination of chloropyll fluorescence, gas exchange measurements, in vivo determination of photorespiration- April/May - September 2015 1 Scientific experience in International Research Institutions - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EEAD-CSIC) - Estación Experimental de Aula Dei -Zaragoza, Spain. Proteomic characterization of peroxisome and mitochondria- June-July - September 2015. National Congress - XXXII Convegno Nazionale - Società Italiana di Chimica Agraria – “Il potenziale biologico del sistema pianta-microrganismi-suolo come chiave della sostenibilità e qualità delle produzioni” - Libera Università di Bolzano – Bolzano 7-9 September 2014 International Congress - FISV 2014 XIV Congress Università di Pisa – Pisa, 24-27 September 2014 International Publications (ISI) Vigani G., Bashir K., Ishimaru Y., Lehmann M., Casiraghi F.M., Nakanishi H., Seki M., Geigenberger P., Zocchi G. and Nishizawa N.K.; Knocking down Mitochondrial Iron Transporter (MIT) reprograms primary and secondary metabolism in rice plants, manuscript accepted, Journal of Experimental Botany. National and International poster presentation - F.M. Casiraghi, G. Vigani, K. Bashir, Y. Ishimaru, L. Tato, H. Nakanishi, N.K. Nishizawa and G. Zocchi; Metabolic reprogramming of rice mutant plants knocking-down in the Mitochondrial Iron Transporter (MIT) expression; International Ph.D. winter school, Piacenza, Italy 17-20 February 2014 2 - F.M. Casiraghi and G. Zocchi, The interplay between photorespiration and iron deficiency: a preliminary study in Cucumis sativus L.; International Ph.D. winter school, Società Italiana di Chimica Agraria, Piacenza (PC) 9-12 February 2015 - F.M. Casiraghi and G. Zocchi, The interplay between photorespiration and iron deficiency: a preliminary investigation; FISV 2014 XIV Congress Università di Pisa – Pisa, 24-27 September 2014 - F.M. Casiraghi and G. Zocchi, Studio degli effetti della carenza di ferro sull’attività foto respiratoria; XXXII Convegno Nazionale - Società Italiana di Chimica Agraria – Bolzano 7-9 September 2014 National and international oral presentation - F.M. Casiraghi, G. Vigani, K. Bashir, Y. Ishimaru, L. Tato, H. Nakanishi, N.K. Nishizawa and G. Zocchi; Metabolic reprogramming of rice mutant plants knocking-down in the Mitochondrial Iron Transporter (MIT) expression; International Ph.D. winter school, Piacenza, Italy 20 February 2014 - F.M. Casiraghi, G. Zocchi. The interplay between photorespiration and iron deficiency, a preliminary investigation; Estacion Experimental De Aula Dei – CSIC - Zaragoza, Monday, 29 th June 2015 Seminar presentation on progress research activity during Ph.D. - L’effetto della Fe-carenza sull’efficienza dei processi fotosintetici – Università degli Studi di Milano – 27-Nov-13 - L’effetto della Fe-carenza sull’efficienza dei processi fotosintetici – Università degli Studi di Milano – 27-Nov-14 3 - The interplay between photorespiration and iron deficiency: a preliminary investigation – Università degli Studi di Milano – 22 Oct 2015 Participation to Seminars - Application of molecular techniques to study accumulation of healt promoting compounds in fruits - Prof. Laura Jaakola- Department of Artic and Marine Biology, University of Tromso Università degli studi di Milano 23-Jan-13 - Genetic dissection of peach fruit quality traits – Dr. Raul Pirona – Plant Genomics Group, Parco Tecnologico Padano -Università degli studi di Milano 27-Feb-13 - Photoperiodical flowering in rice - Università degli studi di Milano 06-mar-13 - The importance of rhizosphere in a changing environment - Prof. George Gobran – Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - Università degli studi di Milano 29-Apr-13 - Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Portugese Grapevine- Prof. I. Castro - Università degli studi di Milano 15-Jan-14 - Imagining and Citometry Tools for Cell Structure and Function analysis – pratical session “bring your samples and try EVOS cell imaging systems – Workshop -Università degli Studi di Milano 23-May-14 - Structure and function of voltage-gated proton channels, Università degli Studi di Milano 03-Jun-14 - Domesticating unicellular algae for increase light use efficiency towards biofuel production Prof. Roberto Bassi – Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Università di Verona – Università degli Studi di Milano – 04-Jun-14 - Microscale thermophoresis workshop (some like it hot: biomolecule analytics using microscale thermphoresis) Università degli Studi di Milano, 11-Jun-14 - Paddy field agriculture and water conservation: monitoring and SWAT model application – Università degli Studi di Milano 20- Jun-2014 4 - Current status of Grapevine phytoplasmas in vineyards in Turkey – Università degli Studi di Milano – 8-Jul-14 - A mechanism of DNA double-strand break repair mediated by transcript RNA – Università degli Studi di Milano – 16-Dec-14 - Sustianability of food supply chains Università degli Studi di Milano 16-Dec-14 - Physiological and molecular basis of plant responses to mineral stress: from acid to calcareous soils Prof. Miroslav Nikolic University of Belgrade – Università di Bologna – Alma mater studiorum- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie – 15-Jan-15. - The role of silicon on nutrient utilization by crops under stressfull environment. Prof. Miroslav Nikolic University of Belgrade – Università di Bologna – Alma mater studiorum- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie- 15-Jan-15. - The agricolture of tomorrow. Growing with less – the research activities of the Volcani center. Prof J. Kalpunik Volcani Centre – Israel – Università degli Studi di Milano – 24 Feb-15 - The science behind feeding the world healthily: the ultimate gxe challenge (Workshop cost action FA1106) – Polo didattico Zanotto – Università degli Studi di Verona Teaching activity - 2013, October (4 hours): General Biology Course -Agricultural Faculty - Università degli Studi di Milano - 2014, October (4 hours): General Biology Course - Agricultural Faculty - Università degli Studi di Milano - 2015 October (4 hours): General Biology Course -Agricultural Faculty - Università degli Studi di Milano 5 M.Sc. Fabio Marco Casiraghi attended the three year PhD studies with diligence, perseverance and responsibility. He has shown great interest in the topics addressed demonstrating ability in critical analysis towards the issues faced during the research activities. He has acquired a very good knowledge of the eco-physiological basis inherent the issue studied as well as the physiological and biochemical techniques for their study. He has independently set collaborations with other research groups in order to investigate specific aspects of the research, thus acquiring new analytical techniques. He spent a short period at the Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agro-ambientali – Università di Pisa – Italy under the supervision of Prof. Lucia Guidi applying the in vivo determination of chloropyll fluorescence, gas exchange measurements and in vivo determination of photorespiration and abroad at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EEAD-CSIC) - Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, Zaragoza (ES) under the supervision of Dr. Javier Abadìa, where he try to perform the Proteomic characterization of peroxisome and mitochondria. Therefore I express an excellent opinion regarding the work carried out by Fabio Marco Casiraghi. 6 to my parents, who give me my roots to Maria Grazia, who give me my wings… 7 ABSTRACT Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for plants as it takes part in major metabolic pathways such as photosynthesis and respiration and is linked to many enzymes that accomplish many other cellular functions (DNA synthesis, nitrogen fixation, hormone production). Fe deficiency reduces crop yields worldwide but particularly in plants grown on calcareous soils, which represent almost the 30% of the earth land surface. In the near future to cope with the increasing demand of