Fatima Zahra Maghnia

Dr. Fatima Zahra Maghnia is a postdoctoral researcher at Gembloux Agro-Biotech (Liège University). During her PhD in Biology. She studied the “plants-fungi” interactions networks within the scope of Mediterranean cork oak forest. This research was conduct jointly between the mycology laboratory of the Forest Research Center at Rabat, Morocco, and Mediterranean and Tropical Symbiosis Laboratory in Montpellier, France.

She received her Master’s degree on Microbial Biotechnology from Sciences and Technical Faculty in Fes, Morocco. In 2011, she contributed to the Program of Agronomic Research for Development (PRAD), when she worked on the management and valorization of the ectomycorrhizal layer shrub for the conservation of cork oak ecosystems. In general, she is interested in studying and understanding the relationship between plants and microorganisms. In fact, in this period of climate changes, some of these microorganisms can be very helpful in alleviating the biotic and abiotic stress; that is why they are so important to plant growth.

Currently, she is collaborating on the CLISMABAN project funded by the Long-term EU-Africa Research and she works on banana’s microbiome, especially endophytes that can play essential role to face the drought stress and the climate change that threatens the international production of Banana and food security.