Fungi play a fundamental role in both our everyday life and the ecosystems. Our main research focus is to do identification, to study the diversity and possible functions of plant associated fungi. We study root associated non-pathogenic fungi, mainly root endophytes, which are common and general member of the plant microbiome and try to understand their special role in harsh environments like our sampling areas of arid grasslands.

We study those fungi from agro-ecosystems, too where we aim to understand their adaptations to certain soil treatments and nutrient forms.

We examine the secondary metabolites of root endophytic fungi, we also examine their biological effects and possible applications.

We apply several methods, we maintain strains collections, do DNA barcoding, genomics and experiments to achieve those aims. We carry out detailed characterization and describe new fungal taxa.

We also interested the effects of fungicides and the diagnoses of genetic markers of fungicide resistance – both in endophytes and also in plant pathogenic fungi.