Antonino Malacrinò

Assistant Professor

University of Reggio Calabria (Italy)

👋 Hi, there!

I’m a molecular ecologist mainly interested in plant microbiomes. My research is a dynamic blend of theory drawn from evolutionary biology, community ecology, and multitrophic interactions, combined with cutting-edge tools in molecular biology, experimental evolution, high-throughput sequencing, and high-performance computing to delve deep into the mechanisms governing the interplay between plants and their microbiomes. My research focuses on answering important fundamental questions: how do microbiomes influence plant ecology and evolution? Which are the rules behind the assembly of plant microbial communities? Can we assemble/evolve microbiomes to drive changes in plant functional traits? How do microbiomes help invasive species to adapt to new environments?

I’m an Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Reggio Calabria (Italy). Our group is working on both fundamental and applied research on plant microbiomes, plant pathogens, and alternative strategies to protect our crops.

Visit our lab website and learn more about our team and research interests.

Projects

Plant genome – microbiome interactions

Select and evolve microbiomes to implement novel functional traits

Understanding the rules behind plant microbiomes assembly

Do microbes help invasive species?

Microbiomes influence plant evolution

Plant-microbiome-insect interactions

Recent Publications

This is a list of recent papers. Please, visit my Google Scholar profile for a full list of my publications.

Antonino Malacrinò, Laura Böttner, Sara Nouere, Meret Huber, Martin Schäfer, Shuqing Xu (2024). Induced responses contribute to rapid adaptation of Spirodela polyrhiza to herbivory by Lymnaea stagnalis. Communications Biology.

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Wenkang Yan, Yuting Liu, Antonino Malacrinò, Jiaoyang Zhang, Xiaoli Cheng, Christopher Rensing, Zhongyi Zhang, Wenxiong Lin, Zhen Zhang, Hongmiao Wu (2023). Combination of biochar and PGPBs amendment suppresses soil-borne pathogens by modifying plant-associated microbiome. Applied Soil Ecology.

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Daowen Huo, Antonino Malacrinò, Laura Lindsey, Maria-Soledad Benitez Ponce (2023). Subtle responses of soil bacterial communities to corn-soybean-wheat rotation. Phytobiomes.

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Laura Böttner, Antonino Malacrinò, Christian Schulze Gronover, Nicole van Deenen, Boje Müller, Shuqing Xu, Jonathan Gershenzon, Dirk Prüfer, Meret Huber (2023). Natural rubber reduces herbivory and alters the microbiome below ground. New Phytologist.

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Antonino Malacrinò, Ahmed Abdelfattah, Imen Belgacem, Leonardo Schena (2023). Plant genotype influence the structure of cereal seed fungal microbiome. Frontiers in Microbiology.

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See all publications

A bit more about me

After my PhD, I joined the Friberg Lab at Linköping University (Sweden) as a postdoc in evolutionary biology. Then, I moved to the Bennett Lab at The Ohio State University (USA) as a postdoc, where my research focused on understanding the factors that drive microbiome assembly in plants. After, I joined the Xu Lab at the University of Münster (Germany) as a Junior Group Leader, where my work focused on understanding the influence of microbial communities in driving plant evolution. Staring fall 2022, I am back “home” to join my alma mater (University of Reggio Calabria, Italy) as an Assistant Professor (RTDb for Italian folks). I have raised >1 million EUR in research grants, served as external expert for grant reviewing panels and the editorial board of several journals as a senior/associated editor, taught course internationally (Sweden, USA, Italy), and mentored >20 among PhD, MSc and BSc students.