ARI Biennial Review for 2018-2019

AGROBIOTECHNOLOGY The Agrobiotechnology Section was established in 2008. Its purpose is to provide solutions to arising agricultural problems with the application of advanced, modern techniques using state-of-the-art laboratory equipment. Research activity in Agrobiotechnology encompassed molecular biology, agricultural microbiology and agricultural chemistry projects. The section research activities also involve participation in different EU funding projects such as HORIZON2020 , LIFE+ and FACCE-SURPLUS as well as ERANET-MED . MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS AND MICROBIAL ECOLOGY OF AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS Soil microbial community structure in different agricultural systems It has been debated that agricultural systems influence the structure of soil microbial communities, which are the cornerstone for soil fertility. In this research our aim is to gain further insight into how organic and conventional agricultural systems influence soil microbial communities. In detail, next generation sequencing was implemented to assess the bacterial community structure, diversity and richness in barley and apple conventional and organic managed land. The results showed that conventional and organic farming practices had substantial effect on the diversity and the composition of bacterial community. Alpha diversity was higher in organic farming systems compared to conventional in both crops. In addition, the within system variation was high, suggesting that other factors than the agricultural system are shaping the microbial diversity within each crop. For example, organic carbon, phosphorus and potassium in apple orchard soils are significantly associated with the abundance and the diversity of the bacterial community. Bray-Curtis distance metric associated with ADONIS and pairwise comparisons showed the effect of crop type on bacterial soil diversity is higher than that of the system. In addition, the dispersion of the bacterial community within the crops is significant meaning that the bacterial communities within crops are heterogeneous. Finally, Canonical Constraint Analysis (CCA) of bacterial communities in organic and conventional crops showed that pH, organic carbon, Ca, and NH 4 + are significant driving soil factors, shaping the bacterial composition in the soil. The study is partially funded by the European Union in the context of the LIFE+ORGANIKO (2015-2019) ( M. Omirou, D. Fasoula, I.M. Ioannides, P. Dalias) 65 AGROBIOTECHNOLOGY