Elisa Pellegrino graduated in Agricultural Sciences and obtained a PhD in Crop Sciences from the University of Pisa. She is an assistant professor in Agronomy and Field Crops at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. She has participated in 38 international and national research projects, often serving as the principal investigator. She has numerous scientific collaborations and has been a visiting researcher at Universidad Tecnica del Norte in Ecuador, the Volcani Center in Israel, the University of York in the UK, and West Virginia University in the USA. She is a member of several scientific societies, including the European Society of Agronomy, the Italian Society of Agronomy, the British Ecological Society, and the International Mycorrhizal Society. She serves as a project evaluator for BES and the EU and is a reviewer for various scientific journals. She is the author of about 130 publications, including 45 articles in indexed journals, with an H-index of 21 and 1806 citations. Her research interests focus on the management of soil-crop interactions and soil microbiome networks to promote sustainability and food security in agricultural systems across different climatic areas. She works on the development of microbial inoculants and the field inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in various crops to increase micronutrients and bioactive substances in crop yields and processed products. Her new research lines include studying local versus exotic microbial consortia to enhance crop tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
Agroecological responses to AMF field inoculation
Despite the widespread use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in agriculture, our understanding of their impact in agroecosystems remains limited. Critical questions include whether AM fungal inoculants effectively enhance crop yield and quality, how they influence agroecosystems, and their potential to become invasive. Therefore, the development of AM fungal inoculants based on native isolates or consortia is currently a major focus due to their promising agronomic performance and lower ecological risk. Research efforts were recently focused to elaborate a model system to successfully isolate native AMF with targeted beneficial functions for specific pedo-climatic contexts. This model system is based on the relationships among the infectivity and effectiveness of AMF, soil chemical parameters, and plant diversity. In the Mediterranean region, extensive field applications of a native AM fungal consortium on various food crops, such as bread wheat, barley, and sunflower, have elucidated the role of crop genotype and environment in modulating the mycorrhizal benefit. Beyond yield and nutrient uptake, other parameters, including the nutritional and technological properties of processed products, were also evaluated. Metagenomic analysis of AM fungal communities in the roots of crops throughout the growth cycle revealed that the proliferation of specific native AM fungal taxa in inoculated crops is a major determinant of crop benefits. These findings were consistent even when exotic AM fungal consortia were applied. However, some exotic AM fungal isolates had a significant impact on the local AM fungal community compared to others. Fungal-dominated communities in soils inoculated with exotic AMF were associated with a lower percentage of residual litter mass and a higher decomposition rate of residues. Nonetheless, inoculation can strongly promote the accumulation of carbon and nitrogen in bulk soil and soil aggregates in specific contexts. Overall, our results suggest an environmentally driven selection for highly efficient AMF and support the use of native inoculants, which pose a lower risk of including invasive isolates. The persistence of inoculated consortia supports their strategic application in crop sequences rather than annual inoculation.