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Martina Cappelletti

Associate Professor

Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology

Academic discipline: BIO/19 Microbiology

Research

Keywords: Molecular microbiology Microbial biotechnology Microbial genomics Omics applied to microbiology Enviornmental Microbiology Microbial biodegradation Biomineralization Bioconversione

My study focuses on two main topics:
1) Characterization of molecular, biochemical and microbiological aspects of microorganisms (Rhodococcus spp.) involved in the degradation/transformation of environmental organic pollutants. In particular, my research work is aimed at describing functional and regulatory genes/metabolic pathways involved in the degradation of environmental contaminants such as aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated compounds and naphthenic acids. The analysis of complete genomes of Rhodococcus spp. isolated from contaminated sites, the study of the expression of metabolic genes (eg. alkane monooxygenases) and the evaluation of cellular response to different stress conditions are aimed at optimizing bioremediation and biotrasformation processes.

2) The molecular and functional characterization of microbial communities from extreme enviroments (e.g. caves). In this regard, highthroughtput DNA/RNA sequencing technologies are used and the bioinformatic analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing data is performed to study the biodiversity of microbial communities and their interaction with the environments (e.g. biomineralization, methanotrophy, methanogenesis). These studies are aimed at discovering novel microbial genera/species and peculiar metabolic genes for biotechnological purposes.

 

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