Petronia Carillo

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• Prof. Dr.
• Professor (Full) at University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"

This study investigates the sex‐specific physiological and biochemical responses to salt stress in male and female Rumex thyrsiflorus plants under hydroponic culture conditions. In vitro regenerated plants were exposed to different sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations (0, 43, and 86 mM), and the resulting changes in morphology, photosynthetic perf...

Thanks to its numerous uses in gastronomy, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, basil (Ocimum spp.) is one of the most studied and consumed aromatic plants worldwide. However, its commercialization and availability are limited by its short post-harvest shelf-life, primarily due to its strong sensitivity to cold, poor handling, and consequent microbial c...

The study examines how biostimulants can support plant adaptation to drought and high temperatures, focusing on key Mediterranean crops. Rather than offering a miraculous solution, biostimulants enhance the plant’s natural resilience by modulating key physiological and biochemical pathways. This underscores the importance of continued research into...

Background Plant senescence is a genetically controlled process that results in the programmed death of plant cells, organs, or the entire plant. This process is essential for nutrient recycling and supports the production of plant offspring. Environmental stresses such as drought and heat can hasten senescence, reducing photosynthetic efficiency a...

Biostimulants are becoming an important tool in agriculture, helping to improve crop growth, resilience, and quality while supporting sustainable farming practices. These products, made from natural substances or microorganisms, enhance plants' natural processes. They can improve how plants use nutrients, handle stressful conditions like drought or...

In plants, GABA is synthesized and catabolized through three enzymatic reactions, collectively known as the GABA shunt, which bypass two steps of the TCA cycle. Its accumulation provides anaplerotic precursors to the cycle and supports various physiological functions, particularly under biotic and abiotic stress conditions. During drought stress, G...

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development and, more recently, the open consultation on the strategic agenda of the European research and innovation partnership “Agriculture of Data” are urging the transition toward more sustainable models of agricultural production. The severe environmental impact of the green revolution precludes the choice of a...

This study explores the application of fuzzy soft classification techniques combined with vegetation indices to address spectral overlap and heterogeneity in agricultural image processing. The methodology focuses on the integration of three key vegetation indices: Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI...

This study investigates the application of modified Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks with Gradient Penalty (WGAN-GP) to generate synthetic RGB and infrared (IR) datasets for precision agriculture, particularly targeting the detection of Raphanus Raphanistrum (wild radish). Traditional WGAN models face challenges such as vanishing gradien...

The agricultural use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and growth regulators may represent a serious public health and environmental problem worldwide. All this has prompted the exploration of alternative chemical compounds, leading to exploring the potential of chitosan and PGPB in agricultural systems as a potential biotechnological solution...

Drought stress is a multidimensional abiotic stress that negatively affects plant growth and yield. Therefore, identifying useful, low-cost, and low-risk solutions to deal with drought along with identifying tolerant plants is crucial for sustainable agriculture and crop production worldwide. In some cases, due to a lack of nutrients, even if there...

The application of biological pesticides as alternatives to chemical phytosanitary products is a natural and innovative method to improve environmental protection and sustainable agricultural production. In this work, the compatibility between Trichoderma spp. and a commercial lignin extract was assessed in vitro and in vivo. The beneficial effects...

The transition to sustainability in agriculture faces significant challenges, especially to balance environmental goals with the practical demands of food production. This paper examines two different case studies that reveal the complexities of agricultural regulation. The first case focuses on the valorization of agri-food residual biomasses, hig...

The increase in the frequency and magnitude of environmental stresses poses a significant risk to the stability of food supplies. In coastal areas of the Mediterranean, brackish water has long been considered a limitation on horticultural production. In this scenario, the use of biochar in agriculture could be considered a valuable tool to cope wit...

This article is a simplified version of the scientific study by Rouphael et al. (2023), titled "Copper boosts the biostimulant activity of a vegetal-derived protein hydrolysate in basil: morpho-physiological and metabolomics insights," published in Frontiers in Plant Science (doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1235686). Focusing on morpho-physiological and met...

Growth monitoring of crops is a crucial aspect of precision agriculture, essential for optimal yield prediction and resource allocation. Traditional crop growth monitoring methods are labor-intensive and prone to errors. This study introduces an automated segmentation pipeline utilizing multi-date aerial images and ortho-mosaics to monitor the grow...

Olive trees are known as one of the most iconic crops in the world. Considering the increasing water deficit worldwide, implementing some profitable and empirical strategies can be inevitable upon exposure to drought stress. Therefore, the present study aimed at clarifying the beneficial role of exogenously foliar application of Fe2O3 modified carb...

Freshwater scarcity is becoming a limiting factor for widely grown vegetable crops such as processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in several Mediterranean districts, making it necessary the use of water-saving techniques. The present study aimed to assess the effect of a regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategy and a biodegradable mulching...

Growth monitoring of crops is a crucial aspect of precision agriculture, essential for optimal yield prediction and resource allocation. Traditional crop growth monitoring methods are labor-intensive and prone to errors. This study introduces an automated segmentation pipeline utilizing multi-date aerial images and ortho-mosaics to monitor the grow...

Unlocking the potential of sustainable agriculture relies on innovative approaches such as recycling crop waste and exploiting wastewater. Herewith, human urine derivatives were integrated into the fertigation of soilless-grown lettuce. The effects were remarkable: not only did they impact primary metabolites such as amino acids, proteins, and suga...

Unlocking the potential of sustainable agriculture relies on innovative approaches such as recycling crop waste and exploiting wastewater. Herewith, human urine derivatives were integrated into the fertigation of soilless-grown lettuce. The effects were remarkable: not only did they impact primary metabolites such as amino acids, proteins, and suga...

Growth monitoring of crops is a crucial aspect of precision agriculture, essential for optimal yield prediction and resource allocation. Traditional crop growth monitoring methods are labor-intensive and prone to errors. This study introduces an automated segmentation pipeline utilizing multi-date aerial images and orthomosaics to monitor the growt...

Nel presente studio condotto nel Nord Italia (Calendasco, PC) nel 2022 su un ibrido a bacca tondo/squadrata (H1534), sono state confrontate due strategie di risparmio idrico – RDI (riduzione al 50 % del volume idrico IRR a partire dalla scala fenologica BBCH 702) e RDI_BMF (come RDI, con aggiunta di pacciamatura biodegradabile) – con la gestione az...

Several studies have shown that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation plays an important role in the development and application of soy-based products and could increase their nutritional values and content of bioactive substances. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LP95 has shown in previous studies to be a promising candidate as a probiotic and micr...

On May 14th, I held a webinar on the key topic "Use of biostimulants to power up crop resilience to water stress and high temperatures, focusing on the Mediterranean hotspot". A climate hotspot is an area where not only a decrease in rainfall and water availability is expected during the summer season, but also an increase in average temperature an...

Improving water use efficiency is gaining relevance for the sustainability of agricultural practices. In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, recent studies highlighted that future climatic scenarios will be even more critical for crops, given the increase in water scarcity. In this context, the rationalization of irrigation water is necessary to sustain...

This research introduces an extensive dataset of unprocessed aerial RGB images and orthomosaics of Brassica oleracea crops, captured via a DJI Phantom 4. The dataset, publicly accessible, comprises 244 raw RGB images, acquired over six distinct dates in October and November of 2020 as well as 6 orthomosaics from an experimental farm located in Port...

The rationale for this data article is to provide resources which could facilitate the studies focussed over weed detection and segmentation in precision farming using computer vision. We have curated Multispectral (MS) images over crop fields of Triticum Aestivum containing heterogenous mix of Raphanus raphanistrum in both uniform and random crop...

Pathway heat map summarizing the changes in metabolic profile in three different basil genotypes (Genovese, Dark Opal, and Purple Ruffle) under control (no salt) and salinity (60 mM NaCl) treatments in plants not treated with biostimulants.

Although many molecular and physiological mechanisms behind plant responses to osmotic and nutritional stresses (primarily salinity) have been identified, the strong impact of genetics makes understanding their interconnections complex. Moreover, the dominant genetic effect often masks other potentially influential factors modulating plant response...

Contemporary challenges facing the agricultural sector have garnered the interest of all stakeholders on the novel toolset of biostimulants. These products could serve as pivotal actors in the forthcoming transition toward ever more essential sustainable production practices. Regardless of their type, biostimulants have the potential to enhance res...

This article is focused on the comprehensive evaluation of alleyways to scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) and random sample consensus (RANSAC) based multispectral (MS) image registration. In this paper, the idea is to extensively evaluate three such SIFT- and RANSAC-based registration approaches over a heterogenous mix containing Triticum ae...

Ranunculus asiaticus L. is an ornamental geophyte. In commercial practice, it is mainly propagated by rehydrated tuberous roots. Vernalization before planting is a common practice to overcome the natural dormancy of tuberous roots; however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the plant’s response to low temperatures. We investigated the...

In addition to be used as a plant protection agent, copper (Cu) is also an essential micronutrient for plant growth and development. The bioavailability of Cu in agricultural systems can be limited due to its specific physical–chemical characteristics, leading to imbalances in plant production. To address this issue, an experimental trial was condu...

Although primary metabolism is well conserved across species, it is useful to explore the specificity of its network to assess the extent to which some pathways may contribute to particular outcomes. Constraint-based metabolic modelling is an established framework for predicting metabolic fluxes and phenotypes and helps to explore how the plant met...

Climate change and rising global average temperatures across the year may strongly affect olive fruits’ development process and their oil yield and quality. There is therefore an urgency to take immediate actions to characterize the wide variability of cultivars in order to identify those with a stable response to high temperatures, particularly in...

Processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a high water-demanding crop and recent shifts in climate patterns (e.g., increase of mean temperature) are severely impacting the sustainability of this crop (Cammarano et al., 2022). The objective of this study was to assess the synergic effect of biodegradable mulching film (BMF) and regulated defici...

Ranunculus asiaticus L. is an ornamental geophyte, mainly propagated by rehydrated tuberous roots. Vernalization before planting is a common practice to overcome the natural dormancy of tuberous roots, however little is known about the mechanisms underlying the plant response to low temperature. We investigated the influence of two hybrids, MBO and...

Citation: Ciriello, M.; Cirillo, V.; Formisano, L.; De Pascale, S.; Romano, R.; Fusco, G.M.; Nicastro, R.; Carillo, P.; Kyriacou, M.C.; Soteriou, G.A.; et al. Salt-Induced Stress Impacts the Phytochemical Composition and Aromatic Profile of Three Types of Basil in a Genotype-Dependent Mode. Plants 2023, 12, 2167. https:// Abstract: Basil (Ocimum ba...

A period of exposure of bulbs to low temperature before planting is required to break bulb dormancy and to promote stem elongation in tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.). The choice of the thermal level and duration depends on the genotypes’ sensitivity to temperature; however little is known about the metabolic responses underlying the different plant re...

Women obtain approximately 50% of all European university doctoral graduations, but they are under-represented in research careers, being approximately 30% of all researchers in Europe and globally and only 12% in the academic sector (UIS, 2019; OEDC, 2021). The gender gap in research has even widened due to the pandemic, disproportionately affecti...

In Ranunculus asiaticus L., vernalization of propagation material is a common practice for the production scheduling of cut flowers, however little is known about the plant physiology and metabolism of this species as affected by cold treatments. We investigated the influence of two hybrids, MBO and MDR, and three preparation procedures of tuberous...

Three commercial microbial-based biostimulants containing fungi (arbuscular mycorrhizae and Trichoderma spp.) and other microrganisms (plant growth-promoting bacteria and yeasts) were applied on a processing tomato crop in a two-year field experiment in southern Italy. The effects of the growing season and the microorganism-based treatments on the...

The use of biostimulants has gained popularity in recent years as a sustainable approach to increase the yield and quality of horticultural crops. However, information is missing concerning their ability to enhance the concentration of some beneficial elements (macro- and microelements) in the edible tissues of plants, which, in turn, are useful fo...

Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone that has several key roles in plant growth, development, and stress adaptation. It is able to elicit important changes in plants’ metabolism from vegetative to a reproductive stage requiring synergistic or antagonist interplays with other phytohormones and transcription factors. In fact, the changes in its levels...

Olive trees are among the best-adapted species to the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, already characterized by persistent rain deficits. However, this area is considered a climate change hotspot for the increasing drought occurrence and warming predicted under future greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Indeed, drought stress is one of the m...

Depending on duration and magnitude, abiotic stresses interfere with plant metabolic processes and may severely impact developmental and qualitative attributes. In this study, in addition to characterizing three different cultivars of basil (‘Anise’, ‘Cinnamon’, and ‘Lemon’) grown under hydroponics, we appraised the impact of NaCl salt stress (60 m...

Microbial-based biostimulants containing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Trichoderma fungi and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been applied in an open-field tomato cultivation. A two-years field experiment (2020-2021) was performed in Southern Italy on “Heinz 1534” processing tomato hybrid, using three commercial formulations c...

Background Drought stress is among the most serious threats jeopardizing the economic yield of crop plants in Iran. In particular, in response to withholding irrigation, the reduction in performance and quality of a precious plant such as the olive tree is remarkable. Therefore, the selection of cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to drought h...

In the coming years, the scientific community, extension specialists and horticulturists will have to deal with growing agronomic and horticultural crops under sub-optimal conditions dictated by a global change scenarios. Salinity which is a water or soil quality concern is one of the most serious threats limiting the productivity of vegetables whi...

Protein hydrolysates (PHs) are a prominent category of plant biostimulants, mainly constituted of amino acids, oligopeptides and polypeptides, obtained by partial hydrolysis of animal or plant protein sources. Despite scientific evidence supporting the biostimulant action of PHs on vegetables, the morphological, physiological, and shelf-life perfor...

The use of microbial biostimulants such as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has gained popularity in recent years as a sustainable approach to boost yield as well as the quality of produce. The beneficial effects of microbial biostimulants have been reported numerous times. However, information is m...

A promising strategy for sustainably increasing the quality and yield of horticultural products is the use of natural plant biostimulants. In this work, through a greenhouse experiment, we evaluated the effect of a legume-derived biostimulant at three dose treatments (0.0 control, 2.5 mL L􀀀1, and 5.0 mL L􀀀1) on the yield performance, nutrients trai...

Galdieria spp. (Rhodophyta) are polyextremophile microalgae known for their important antioxidant properties in different biological systems. Nowadays, the beneficial and bio-stimulant effect of microalgal extracts is widely tested on crops. Here, for the first time, potential positive effects of aqueous extracts from Galdieria were tested on a sec...

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multi-functional crop cultivated for fiber, seeds, or phytochemical extraction. Once a major industrial crop in several agro-environments, its cultivation strongly declined in developed countries since World War II. Exploiting hemp vegetative tissue as innovative food has remained largely unexplored. The current work...

The use of plant biostimulants such as seaweed extracts (SWE) and protein hydrolysates (PH) has grown in the recent years due to their beneficial effects on yield under both optimal and sub-optimal conditions such as salt stress. The comprehension of the mode of action of these two important categories of biostimulants on plant performance will all...

Olive trees are considered among the most resilient crops in Mediterranean basin. However, prolonged water stress may adversely affect plant productivity and quality of fruits and oil. Therefore, it is essential to design new agronomic strategies to improve plant water stress tolerance and secure yield and product stability of this important agricu...

Plant factories and high-tech greenhouses offer the opportunity to modulate plant growth, morphology and qualitative content through the management of artificial light (intensity, photoperiod and spectrum). In this study, three Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting systems, with blue (B, 460 nm), red (R, 650 nm) and mixed red + green-yellow + blue (R...

Over the past five decades, nitrogen (N) fertilization has been an essential tool for boosting crop productivity in agricultural systems. To avoid N pollution while preserving the crop yields and profit margins for farmers, the scientific community is searching for eco-sustainable strategies aimed at increasing plants’ nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)...

The use of biostimulants in modern agriculture has rapidly expanded in recent years, owing to their beneficial effects on crop yield and product quality, which have come under the scope of intensive research. Accordingly, in the present study we appraised the efficacy of two plant-derived biostimulants, the legume-derived protein hydrolysates Train...

I trattamenti effettuati con le tre diverse formulazioni di biostimolanti microbici rappresentano una strategia promettente perché, pur agendo in modo differente, sono in grado di aumentare il contenuto di metaboliti antiossidanti e la qualità di frutti di pomodoro da industria nelle coltivazioni in pieno campo

In recent years, alongside the conventional screening procedures for the evaluation of probiotics for human usage, the pharmaceutical and food industries have encouraged scientific research towards the selection of new probiotic bacterial strains with particular functional features. Therefore, this study intended to explore novel functional propert...

In this in vivo study, we investigated cytoprotective and antigenotoxic effects of commercial tomato puree obtained from conventional vs. organic farming systems (pesticides vs. pesticide-free agriculture, respectively). This is relevant as pesticides are widely used in agriculture to prevent pests, weeds, and the spread of plant pathogens. By expo...

Tulip is one of the most important bulbous genera in the world’s floriculture. It is known that cold exposure of bulbs before planting is required to break the bulb dormancy and to promote the plant’s flowering. Preparation procedures performed by breeders differ in the duration and the thermal level, and the choice of the procedure depends on the...

C4 photosynthesis concentrates CO2 around Rubisco in the bundle sheath, favouring carboxylation over oxygenation and decreasing photorespiration. This complex trait evolved independently in over 60 angiosperm lineages. Its evolution can be investigated in genera such as Flaveria (Asteraceae) that contain species representing intermediate stages bet...

Microgreens are the new sophisticated commodity in horticulture that boost the human diet with bioactive metabolites and garnish it with colors and tastes. Microgreens thrive well when cultivated in soilless systems, of which closed-loop soilless systems combined with biostimulant application can provide a sustainable, innovative method of growing...

We investigated the influence of photoperiodic light spectrum, inducing different phytochrome photoequilibria (PPE) at plant level, on photosynthesis, metabolic profiling, plant growth and flowering of Ranunculus asiaticus L. hybrids, MBO and MDR with different flowering earliness, grown in glasshouse from rehydrated dry tuberous roots. Plants were...

Hydroponics growing systems often contain excessive nutrients (especially nitrates), which could lead to a quality loss in ready-to-eat leafy vegetables and posing a health risk to consumers, if managed inadequately. A floating raft system was adopted to assay the production and quality performance of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv ‘Maravilla De Ver...

The high content of glucosinolates and glutathione makes the Brassicaceae an important healthy food. Thiols and especially glutathione and γ-Glu-Cys-Gly tripeptide are involved in many fundamental cellular functions such as oxidative stress protection. Although several methods for sulphur compounds analysis in biological samples are actually used,...

A mild salinity stress (eustress) may modulate the induction of the plant defense system in horticultural crops and the synthesis of phytochemical components able to enhance plant resilience, post-harvest performance, and the nutraceutical quality of produce. However, the choice of the correct eustress type and dose to induce the synthesis of these...

Biostimulants have rapidly and widely been adopted as growth enhancers and stress protectants in agriculture, however, due to the complex nature of these products, their mechanism of action is not clearly understood. By using two algal based commercial biostimulants in combination with the Solanum lycopersicum cv. MicroTom model system, we assessed...

About one-third of the food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted each year. This represents a loss of natural resources consumed along the food supply chain that can also have negative impacts on food security. While food loss occurs between production and distribution and is prevalent in low-income countries, food waste occurs...

The effect of plant biostimulation on fruits of traditional tomato germplasm is largely unknown. We examined how a tropical plant-derived biostimulant impacts the nutritional, functional, and compositional characteristics of tomato fruits from four landraces, collected in the San Marzano (SM) tomato Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) region, by...

Despite scientific evidence supporting the biostimulant activity of protein hydrolysates (PHs) derived from vegetal or animal sources, the morpho-physiological and biochemical mechanisms underlying the biostimulant action of PHs from plant biomass or animal by-products are still poorly explored. Accordingly, we performed a greenhouse experiment for...

Simple Summary Water scarcity is one of the main threats for the future of agriculture and the worldwide population. Improving the ability of crop species to grow and survive with less water is therefore essential. A fundamental goal of most scientists working in this area is to understand the mechanisms plants must potentiate to better survive und...

Hordeum maritimum With. is a wild salt tolerant cereal present in the saline depressions of the Eastern Tunisia, where it significantly contributes to the annual biomass production. In a previous study on shoot tissues it was shown that this species withstands with high salinity at the seedling stage restricting the sodium entry into shoot and modu...

Plant stress studies dealing with a single stress approach have been useful for dissecting stress perception of defined stimuli and related gene expression and metabolic changes. However, in real-world scenarios, plants are simultaneously exposed to a plethora of stresses counteracted by mean of tailored responses completely different from the resp...

Ranunculus asiaticus is a quantitative long day plant grown for cut flowers and flowering potted plants production. We evaluated the influence of light spectrum of three light sources for end-of-day photoperiodic treatments, with different phytochrome photoequilibria (PPE) induced at plant level, on the metabolic profiling of two hybrids of R. asia...

Nutritional eustress such as salinity or nutrient stress applied in soilless systems, is a convenient pre-harvest factor efficient in modulating the phytochemical components of horticultural crops, by triggering defensive mechanisms and accumulating plant secondary metabolites in plants tissues. Nevertheless, genetic material (cultivars with differ...

Algal biomass, extracts, or derivatives have long been considered a valuable material to bring benefits to humans and cultivated plants. In the last decades, it became evident that algal formulations can induce multiple effects on crops (including an increase in biomass, yield, and quality), and that algal extracts contain a series of bioactive com...