Francesco di Serio

Francesco di Serio is a scientist of the Institute for SustainablePlant Protection of the National Research Council of Italy (IPSP-CNR). Since May 2024, he is the director of IPSP-CNR.  His research activity focuses on plant protection, mainly against viroids, which are small circular RNAs that do not code for any protein but may infect plants and cause diseases. Using viroids as model system, F. Di Serio studied relationships between structure and function in non-coding RNAs and the role of RNA silencing in both plant anti-viroid defense and viroid pathogenesis. F.Di Serio identified several novel viroid-like RNAs and plant viruses, some of which were recognized as representative members of new genera. Recently, he contributed to the discovery of a novel level of microbial biodiversity characterized by thousands of viroid-like RNAs endowed of ribozymatic activity, some of which code for their own replicase. Currently, research of F. Di Serio addresses the characterization of this new level of biodiversity and on the dissection of molecular pathways underlying viroid/viroid-like RNA-host interactions, mainly focusing on the modulation of gene expression and epigenetics changes induced by these infectious agents. F. Di Serio is the Chair of the Study Group on Pospiviroidaeand Avsunviroidae families of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), member of the Study Group on family Phenuiviridae of ICTV, member of the Plant Health Panel of the European Food Safety Authority, member of the Board of Teachers of the PhD Course in Biodiversity, Agriculture and Environment of the University of Bari Aldo Moro. He co-authored more than one hundred papers in peer-reviewed international journals (Scopus Id 8888300800 – ORCID 0000-0003-2822-704X).

List of representative bibliography

  1. Serra P, Navarro B, Forment J, Gisel A, Gago-Zachert S, Di Serio F*, Flores R. Expression of symptoms elicited by a hammerhead viroid through RNA silencing is related to population bottlenecks in the infected host. NEW PHYTOLOGIST (in press, accepted for publication on 16/03/2023).
  2. Di Serio F*, Owens RA, Navarro B, Serra P, Martínez de Alba ÁE, Delgado S, Carbonell A, Gago-Zachert S. (2023). Role of RNA silencing in plant-viroid interactions and in viroid pathogenesis.  VIRUS RESEARCH, 323, 198964. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2022.198964.
  3. Flores R, Navarro B, Serra P, Di Serio F* (2022). A scenario for the emergence of protoviroids in the RNA world and for their further evolution into viroids and viroid-like RNAs by modular recombinations and mutations. Virus Evolution, vol. 8, 1-19, ISSN: 2057-1577, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veab107.
  4. Navarro B, Gisel A, Serra P, Chiumenti M, Di Serio F*, Flores R* (2021). Degradome Analysis of Tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana Plants Infected with Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 22, ISSN: 1661-6596, doi: 10.3390/ijms22073725.
  5. Chiumenti M, Navarro B, Candresse T, Flores R, Di Serio F* (2021). Reassessing species demarcation criteria in viroid taxonomy by pairwise identity matrices. VIRUS EVOLUTION, vol. 7, ISSN: 2057-1577, doi: 10.1093/ve/veab001.
  6. Flores R*, Navarro B, Delgado S, Serra P, Di Serio F* (2020). Viroid pathogenesis: a critical appraisal of the role of RNA silencing in triggering the initial molecular lesion. FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS, vol. 44, 386-398, ISSN: 0168-6445, doi: 10.1093/femsre/fuaa011.
  7. Chiumenti M, Navarro B, Venerito P, Civita F, Minafra A, Di Serio F* (2019). Molecular variability of apple hammerhead viroid from Italian apple varieties supports the relevance in vivo of its branched conformation stabilized by a kissing loop interaction. VIRUS RESEARCH, vol. 270, ISSN: 0168-1702, doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2019.197644.
  8. Delgado S, Navarro B, Serra P, Gentit P, Cambra MÁ, Chiumenti M, De Stradis A, Di Serio F*, Flores R.* (2019). How sequence variants of a plastid-replicating viroid with one single nucleotide change initiate disease in its natural host. RNA BIOLOGY, vol. 16, 1-12, ISSN: 1555-8584, doi: 10.1080/15476286.2019.1600396.
  9. Torchetti EM, Pegoraro M, Navarro B, Catoni M, Di Serio F*, Noris E* (2016). A nuclear-replicating viroid antagonizes infectivity and accumulation of a geminivirus by upregulating methylation-related genes and inducing hypermethylation of viral DNA.. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, vol. 6, 1-11, ISSN: 2045-2322, doi: 10.1038/srep35101.
  10. Minoia S, Navarro B, Delgado S, Di Serio F*, Flores R* (2015). Viroid RNA turnover: characterization of the subgenomic RNAs of potato spindle tuber viroid accumulating in infected tissues provides insights into decay pathways operating in vivo. NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, vol. 43, 2313-2325, ISSN: 0305-1048, doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv034.