
Elena Martino
Présentation
Elena Martino is assistant professor at the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (http://www.dbios.unito.it/do/docenti.pl/Show?_id=emartino;sort=U2;search=;hits=201) (former Department of Plant Biology) - University of Turin. She got the Bachelor Degree in Natural Sciences (mark 110/110 cum laude et menzione) at the University of Turin on July 15, 1996, discussing a Master Degree report titled: “Morphological and functional characterization of symbiotic mycelia coming from a heavy metal contaminated site”. She got the Optime award from the Industrial Union of Turin and the award for the Best report in Natural Science for the Academic Year 1996/97. From 1997 to 1998 she was engaged in a Postgraduate Training Experience at the Department of Plant Biology of the University of Turin**,** obtaining a CNR (National Council of Research) grant concerning the thematic “Functional and genomic biodiversity of mycorrhizal fungi”. She got the PhD at the University of Turin on March 7, 2001, with a dissertation titled: “Interactions between ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and heavy metals”. During her PhD she spent two research periods abroad (Prof. G.M. Gadd Lab - Department of Biological Sciences - University of Dundee, Scotland, from March 1 to November 30, 1999; Dr. C. Azcon-Aguilar Lab - Zaidin Experimental Centre, Granada, Spain, from 3 to 11 August, 2000). On 2000 she got the Qualification to teach Natural Sciences, Geography and Microbiology at the Secondary School. She got a 1st level Bioinformatics Master at the University of Turin on February 7, 2002. Since November 1, 2002 she has a permanent position as assistant professor at the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology of the University of Torino.
Since 2002 she has been involved in local University projects concerning the mechanisms regulating the interaction of soil fungi with different types of environmental contaminants and possible development of new bioremediation systems. She studied in particular the response of tolerant ericoid endomycorrhizal fungi coming from polluted sites to heavy metal stress. Through a proteomics approach, enzymes induced by heavy metals have been found, whose expression could partly explain the metal tolerance shown by these mycorrhizal fungi. From October 2003 to March 2004, she spent a research period in the Prof. P.D. Spanu Lab, Imperial College, London (UK), thanks to a fellowship from the National Academy of Lincei, working on fungal genetic transformation. She was able to stable genetically transform and visualize in planta an endomycorrhizal fungus for the first time. The possibility to genetically transform this fungus has been fundamental to unravel heavy metal tolerance mechanisms. From 2004 to 2006 she has been responsible for the subproject 3.3 (Endophytes and root associates as natural agents of bioremediation) of the Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Biosensing (CEBIOVEM) of the Department of Plant Biology, University of Turin. From 2002 to 2008 she was involved in a Piedmont Region project: “Asbestos hazard in Western Alps”, collaborating with Prof. B. Fubini (Chemistry Department, University of Turin) and with the Interdepartmental Centre for the Study of Asbestos and Others Dangerous Particulates G. Scansetti (Turin, Italy). Aim of the project was the study of the interaction between soil fungi and asbestos mineral fibres and the possible role of fungal microorganisms as detoxification agents. Interesting results were obtained and published, showing the ability of fungi to solubilize iron (one of the main responsible for asbestos toxicity), from the fibres. These results were commented on Nature Science Update, suggesting the interesting and important perspectives of this project.
In the period 2008-2012 she has been involved in a scientific collaboration with the group of Prof. M. Chalot and Dr. D. Blaudez (University of Nancy, France) including the participation to two different projects: (i) the Phytopop project (http://dendroremediation.univ-fcomte.fr/spip.php?rubrique5) with the purpose to explore poplar potential in phytoremediation processes. She was involved in the task aiming at identify mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi associated to poplar roots and at analyze their impact on the phytoremediation process; (ii) a project intended to investigate metal transporters in the ericoid endomycorrhizal fungus Oidiodendron maius and to screen for metal tolerance an O. maius random-mutants collection. This collaboration was partly supported by a fellowship from the University of Turin (WWS - World Wide Style – project). Since 2010 she is involved in the international project “Exploring the Genome Diversity of Mycorrhizal Fungi to Understand the Evolution and Functioning of Symbiosis in Woody Shrubs and Trees” in the framework of the Mycorrhizal Genomics Initiative, MGI (https://jgi.doe.gov/the-mycorrhizal-genomics-initiative-or-exploring-tree-fungal-symbioses/) coordinated by Dr. F. Martin (INRAE / Université de Lorraine, Centre INRAE Grand Est Nancy) in collaboration with the Joint Genome Institute (JGI, California). Some results of this project have been published in Nature Genetics (http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v47/n4/full/ng.3223.html) and commented in the media (https://www.unito.it/comunicati_stampa/funghi-10-100-1000-genomi-ricercatrici-unito-su-nature-genetics).
In the framework of this collaboration, she got two projects funded by the Laboratoire d’excellence (Labex) ARBRE (Nancy, France) (Projets Incitatifs), the first one in 2013 (project title “Looking for effector symbiosis-related proteins in the ericoid endomycorrhizal fungus Oidiodendron maius”) (https://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/ARBRE/?page_id=296) and the second one in 2019 (project title: "Isolation, identification, structural and functional characterization of new polyketides produced by the mycorrhizal fungus Oidiodendron maius") (https://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/ARBRE/?page_id=296*).*
Since 2013 she develops part of her research activity at the Centre INRAE Grand Est Nancy (France) where she is hosted as invited researcher (https://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/IAM/?page_id=853).
Publications
Publications
Ecology of ericoid mycorrhizal fungi: what insight have we gained with molecular tools and what’s missing?Molecular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, 2016
Chapitre d'ouvrage
hal-03024093
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Homeostasis of trace elements in mycorrhizal fungiMolecular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, 2016
Chapitre d'ouvrage
hal-03024846
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