I am interested the study of seed specialized metabolite diversity in Brassicaceae and other species. While it is important to characterize seed SM landscapes in different plant genotypes (Corso and de la Torre, 2020; Corso et al., 2020, 2021b), I showed that seed SM decorations (mainly hydroxylation, glycosylation, acylation and methylation) and, hence, diversity, are strongly regulated by the environmental conditions (Boutet et al., 2022; Alberghini et al., 2022) and that some metabolic pathways can be induced by biotic and abiotic stresses and/or priming treatments.
Hence, besides the study of seed SM landscapes, I become interested in the characterization of SM plasticity, i.e. the diversity and regulation of SM in response to different and contrasting environmental conditions, and in the induction of plant and seed specialized metabolome in Brassicaceae species such as Arabidopsis, Camelina and Brassica.
More recently, I am developing new projects on wheat, legume and horticultural species. More precisely, I aim at elucidating the metabolic and molecular mechanisms regulating the homeostasis and decorations of seed metabolites by abiotic (e.g. heat stress) and biotic stresses (e.g. Alternaria, Xanthomonas and pathogen stress mimicked by CuCl2).
In other projects, I and my team are using metabolomic techniques to study the effect and regulation of priming treatments in plants and seeds.

Full list of publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Massimiliano-Corso 



Funding and ongoing grants

• 2024 – 2026. Project SeedNapic - Characterizing sinapic acid pathways in seeds and their role against pathogens and oxidative stress. Funding source: SPS research Open Call 2024, Saclay Plant Science - SPS (FR). Amount: 39K€. Role: Coordinator.
• 2024 – 2029. Project ValoN - Nitrogen valorization from field to consumer: case of lentil and chickpea. Funding source: France 2030, ANR (FR). Amount: 368K€. Role: Collaborator.
• 2024 – 2028. Project OLEOPROTID - Interest of oilseeds in the diversification of food proteins - The case of Camelina. Funding source: France 2030, ANR (FR). Amount: 390K€. Role: WP leader, coordinator for INRAE-Versailles.
• 2023 – 2026. Project: Diversity, plasticity and genetic determinism of the specialized metabolome of pea (Pisum sativum) seeds. Funding source: BAP department – INRAE and LETSPROSEED Project. Amount: PhD scholarship. Role: thesis director (co-direction with Vanessa Vernoud, AG, INRAE-Dijon, FR).
• 2023 – 2028. Project LETSPROSEED - Pushing back the limit to the use of legume proteins in human nutrition by improving seed quality and processing without compromising stress resistance. Funding source: PIA-4 (now France 2030), ANR (FR). Amount: 270K€. Role: collaborator, coordinator for INRAE-Versailles.
• 2023 – 2026. Project: DYNAFER - Dynamics of coumarin uptake by plant roots to improve iron nutrition. Funding: ANR Agence Nationale de la Recherche / French Research Agency. Amount: 190K€. Role: collaborator.
• 2022 – 2026. Project: DREAM - Diversified orchards for REsilient and sustAinable Mediterranean farming systems. Funding source: EU-PRIMA. Amount: 200K€. Role: collaborator, coordinator for INRAE.
• 2022 – 2025. Project: SeedBioProtect - Protection des semences par des solutions de biocontrôle. Funding source: PlantAlliance and Consortum Biocontrôle. Amount: 83K€. Role: collaborator.
• 2021 – 2024. Project: Characterization of the seed specialized metabolome landscape in Brassicaceae species. Funding source: BAP department – INRAE and Saclay Plant Science - SPS (FR). Amount: PhD scholarship. Role: thesis director.
• 2021 – 2024. Project: BrassiMet - Investigating genetic diversity of specialized metabolites in Brassicaceae for enlarging the defensive repertoire of Brassica napus and Camelina sativa. Funding source: Plant2Pro (FR). Amount: 185K€ (80K€ for our team). Role: coordinator (co-coordinator Antoine GRAVOT).
• 2021 – 2027. Project: SUCSEED - Stop the Use of pestiCides on Seeds by proposing alternatives. Funding source: PPR, ANR (FR). Amount: 700K€ (for INRAE-Versailles, several teams involved). Role: collaborator.
• 2019 – 2025. Project: Seed MetaSpe. Funding source: SPS LabEx (FR). Amount: 300 K€ (100 K€ for the section on seed SMs). Role: collaborator