Ricerc@Sapienza

Lionetti Lab investigates the dynamic structure and remodeling of plant cell walls, focusing on their role in growth, defense, and plant–pathogen interactions. Our research combines molecular biology, biochemistry, and glycomics to uncover how plants perceive and respond to microbial attack, and how these processes contribute to immunity and stress tolerance.

This study aims to characterize the SGs transcriptome under different environmental stressors, identifying the main differences in SGs composition across both stresses and organisms. To understand how different environmental stressors affect SGs transcriptomic composition in A. thaliana, a very-well known plant model system used for these type of studies.

Plant cell walls are the first line of defense against pathogen attack and regulate growth under physiological and stress conditions. Plant cells constantly monitor wall integrity to adjust growth and modulate defenses. We have shown that plants with altered pectin composition constitutively express defense responses and are more resistant to infections, but are severely impaired in growth.