Biotechnological solutions to exploit as well as engineer microbial diversity for the conversion of agricultural and industrial waste streams into valuable compounds (ie bioethanol, biohydrogen and biogas, polyhydroxyalkanoates, enzymes, bacteriocins) in a biorefinery concept. (Favaro, Squartini). • Study of the metabolism and abiotic stress adaptation in plants by proteomic and metabolomic. (Masi) • Development of meta-omics approaches to decipher the role of soil biology in mediating soil functions and ecosystem services. (Stevanato, Squartini) • Applications of new molecular, and analytical techniques to the understanding of plant-soil interactions. (Stevanato) • Studies on biotechnological control of soil-borne diseases. (Stevanato) • Environmental monitoring of microbial ecosystem services and corrective practices to reactivate the defective ones (Squartini, Favaro) • Study of the epigenetic mechanisms involved in stress responses and of their memory in crops, by application of -omics techniques. (Varotto) • Plant physio-molecular responses to nutrient deprivation and environmental stresses (Quaggiotti). • Micropropagation of recalcitrant plants for the establishment of an effcicient supply chain and to support sustainability for the plant nursery sector and for reforestation actions in the context of climate change (Ruperti, Quaggiotti, Bonghi) • Set-up and application of high-throughput automated in situ expression analyses for plant developmental studies (Ruperti) • Study of plants transcriptomic and metabolomic responses to low oxygen stress: roots responses to flooding and fruit responses to storage under extreme low oxygen stress (Ruperti) 5 • Study of the pre-harvest quality determinants in fruits from a molecular-physiological point of view (Botton) • Study of postharvest disorders in fruit tree crops by omic approaches (Bonghi, Ruperti)