Assistant Professor
amalacr@clemson.edu
Lab website: http://malacrinolab.netlify.app
Biosketch
Antonino Malacrinò is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Clemson University. Dr. Malacrinò earned his B.Sc. (2011) and M.Sc. (2013) in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies from the University of Reggio Calabria (Italy), and his Ph.D. (2017) in Agriculture, Forestry and Environmental Sciences from the University of Palermo (Italy). Following his Ph.D., he pursued international postdoctoral training at Linköping University in Sweden (2017–2018), and at The Ohio State University as a Postdoctoral Researcher (2019–2021). In 2021, he was appointed Junior Group Leader at the University of Münster in Germany, before moving back to Italy as an Assistant Professor at the University of Reggio Calabria (2022–2024). During this period, he established an independent research program on plant-microbiome interactions, securing several competitive national and international grants. In 2025, Dr. Malacrinò joined Clemson University, where he continues to lead research on plant and soil microbiomes.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Malacrinò has secured ∼$3M in highly competitive research funding from agencies across Europe. His research has been published in journals such as Science, PNAS, Global Change Biology, New Phytologist, and Communications Biology. His contributions have been recognized with international awards, including the Harry Smith Prize (2023). He serves the editorial board of Molecular Ecology (Editor), Letters in Applied Microbiology (Senior Editor), and he is Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Applied Biology (Jan 2026).
Research Interests
My research investigates the ecology and evolution of host–microbiome systems, with a focus on plants, soil, and their herbivores. I integrate evolutionary biology, community ecology, and microbiology with molecular biology, high-throughput sequencing, experimental evolution, and computational approaches to address fundamental questions: How do microbiomes shape host ecology and evolution? What ecological and evolutionary rules govern the assembly of microbial communities? And can we engineer microbial communities to enhance traits of interest such as stress tolerance, disease resistance, or invasiveness? A central theme of my work is holobiont biology: understanding how host and their associated microbes function as integrated ecological and evolutionary units. My group also studies the effects of wildfires on soil microbiome structure, function, and the consequences of such changes for ecosystem recovery. Through this integrative approach, my goals is to help building microbiome-based tools that support sustainable food systems and healthy ecosystems in a changing world.
Selected Publications
An updated record is available at:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=_ghEdkYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
- Schäfer M, Malacrinò A, Walcher C, […], Xu S. 2025. Aphid herbivory on macrophytes drives adaptive evolution in an aquatic community. PNAS.
- Hopkins JR, Vizzari G, Bennett AE, Malacrinò A. 2025. Fire limits soil microbial dispersal and differentially impacts bacterial and fungal communities. Global Change Biology.
- Bordenstein SR, Gilbert MTP, Ginnan G, Malacrinò A, […] Alberdi A. 2024. The disciplinary matrix of holobiont biology. Science.
- Malacrinò A, Bennett AE. 2024. Soil microbiota and herbivory drive tomato microbiome assembly through different mechanisms. Communications Biology.
- Malacrinò A. 2022. Host species identity shapes the diversity and structure of insect microbiota. Molecular Ecology.