Claudio Ratti

My main areas of expertise are plant and fungal virology, with a particular emphasis on molecular characterisation, diagnostics and epidemiology. I’m also studying phytoplasmas, viroids and some plant pathogenic bacteria. Current and recent research topics include:

• Study of the soil-borne viral diseases, transmitted by protozoa Polymyxa ssp, of cereals and sugar beet by reverse genetic approach using full-length cDNA clones of viral RNAs. By in vitro transcription or infection mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens viral RNAs and proteins are functionally characterized with particular interest to post transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) suppressor activity.
• Identification, molecular and biological characterization of mycoviruses infecting plant pathogenetic fungi. Characterization of Cryphonectria parasitica ipovirulent isolates, analyses of viroma from different Fusarium spp. populations, transfection of protoplast for biological characterization of Fusarium culmorum isolate infected and not infected by mycoviruses.
• Collaboration with the regional plant health service (SFR) for technical-specialist support on analyses and epidemiological surveys of phytosanitary risks related to plant pathogen organisms and on control activity of fruit trees, strawberry, olive, grape and kiwifruit plants multiplication material. In particular the collaboration covers all aspects of plant disease diagnosis from symptoms detection in the field to high sensitive molecular techniques for the identification and characterisation of pathogen in plants
• Development, within the national phytosanitary certification program, of methodologies for molecular diagnosis of quarantine and quality plant pathogens organisms in order to increase their sensitivity and accuracy.
• Study of the soil-borne viral diseases, transmitted by protozoa Polymyxa ssp, of sugar beet and cereals by full-length cDNA clones and functional characterization of viral proteins in planta.
• Genetic dissection of resistance to Soil-borne cereal mosaic virus in a durum wheat segregating populations using microsatellite (SSR) and DArT markers.
• Resistant response evaluation of sugar beet germplasm to Beet necrotic yellow vein virus under environmental controlled conditions.
• Diagnosis of viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas infecting horticultural crops, cereals, ornamental and officinal plants and others industrial crops using mechanical transmission, serological techniques, electron microscopy, purification and molecular characterization of viral genomes.
• Employ of techniques with high sensitivity (RT-PCR, nRT-PCR, Real-Time RT-PCR and ddRT-PCR) and high data throughput (NGS platforms including portable MinION device from Oxford Nanopore technologies) for the identification, characterization and/or quantification of virus, virods and phytoplasmas in low concentration on bulbs, tubers, seeds, radical, foliar and phloematic tissues.
• Molecular characterization, diversity and taxonomic position of Iranian isolates of cereals, vegetables and fruit trees within a supervision of PhD students from the Tehran University, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Tarbiat Modares University (Tehran) and Shiraz University, Shiraz.
• Identification and characterization of virus, phytoplasmas and virus-like organisms infecting kiwifruit and pomegranate in Italy.