About
My research is primarily focussed on obtaining mechanistic insights into microbiome functioning. I mainly work with plant and environmental microbiomes, but also with other microbiomes, e.g. indoor microbiomes, to link them to human health and disease. I am currently involved as PI in several research projects, including such that are funded by Horizon Europe and national funding bodies. During the last years I have co-authored more than 135 peer-reviewed publications. In the beginning of 2023, I was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Southampton after being Assistant Professor at Graz University of Technology (Austria) for several years. I am also a Working Group (Biological and Integrated Control of Plant Pathogens) convenor for the International Organization of Biological Control (IOBC).
Selected Publications:
Cernava, T. (2024). Coming of age for Microbiome gene breeding in plants. Nature Communications, 15, 6623.
Fan, X., Matsumoto, H., Xu, H., Fang, H., Pan, Q., Lv, T., Zhan, C., Feng, X., Liu, X., Su, D., Fan. M., Ma, Z., Berg, G., Li, S., Cernava, T.*, and Wang, M. (2024). Aspergillus cvjetkovicii protects against phytopathogens through interspecies chemical signaling in the phyllosphere. Nature Microbiology, 9, 2862–2876.
Su, P., Kang, H., Peng, Q., Wicaksono, W. A., Berg, G., Liu, Z., Ma, J., Zhang, D., Cernava, T.*, and Liu, Y. (2024). Microbiome homeostasis on rice leaves is regulated by a precursor molecule of lignin biosynthesis. Nature Communications, 15, 23.
Xu, S., Liu, Y., Cernava, T.#, Wang, H., Cao, S., Zhou, Y., Berg, G., Xia, T., Shen, X., et al. (2022). Fusarium fruiting body microbiome member Pantoea agglomerans inhibits fungal pathogenesis by targeting lipid rafts. Nature Microbiology, 7, 831–843.
Matsumoto, H., Fan, X., Wang, Y., Kusstatscher, P., Duan, J., Wu, S., Chen, S., Wang, Y., Ma, B., Zhu, G., Hashidoko, Y., Berg, G., Cernava, T.*, and Wang, M. (2021). Bacterial seed endophyte shapes disease resistance in rice. Nature Plants, 7, 60-72.