Plant & Environmental
Biotechnology Laboratory

Fotis Bekris

Postdoctoral researcher

Fotios Bekris received his B.Sc. in the University of Peloponnese (Kalamata-Greece, former Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata) from the Department of Agricultural Technology (former Department of Plant Production). He contacted his B.Sc. thesis at the National Agricultural Research Foundation (Kalamata, Greece) in the field of plant-microbes interaction, and especially he was involved in the studying of biocontrol agents (mainly fungi) and the expression of pathogenesis related proteins (PR) in tomato plant (Lycopersicon esculentum). He obtained his M.Sc degree from the University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Larissa-Greece) and he contacted his M.Sc. thesis at the Plant and Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory of the same University. His thesis was titled “Genes expression in tomato plants during the interaction with a non-pathogenic strain of Fusarium solani” and was supervised by Dr. Kalliope Papadopoulou. Furthermore, he received his Ph.D. diploma from the Biology Department of the University of Crete (Heraklion/Crete, Greece) at June 2018. His Ph.D. research mainly focused on soil microbial diversity and interaction with plants in Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems as well as diversity of the ammonia oxidizing microorganisms (AOM, bacteria, archaea) in these ecosystems, and was contacted at the Laboratory of Plant Ecology & Terrestrial Ecosystems Management (University of Crete). During that period, Fotis was awarded with a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (ΙΚΥ) and had been able to travel and work for 6 months as an affiliate Ph.D. student at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), University of California (Berkeley-California, USA) under the supervision of Dr. Gary Andersen at G3 PhyloChip microarrays technology. Fotis is a co-author in 9 articles published in peer-reviewed journals (h-index: 5, Citations: 263), and 23 publications in proceedings of national and international conferences. The main field of scientific and research interest of Fotis is environmental microbiology/microbiomes and specifically microbe/plant interactions as well as microbe/microbe interactions. Currently his is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Plant and Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Larissa-Greece) focusing on microbiome of Vitis vinifera from vineyard to wine vinifications under the supervision of Dr. Dimitrios Karpouzas.

Publications

Kolovou, M., Bachtsevani, E., Bekris, F., Pedrinho, A., Omirou, M., Nicol, G. W., Hazard, C., Papadopoulou, E. S., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2026). Using species sensitivity distributions to assess the toxicity of pesticides on nitrifiers and broader microbial groups: From single-species tests to soil amplicon sequencing. Environmental Pollution, 406, 128640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2026.128640

Fotios Bekris*, Marios Georgios Kollaros*, Michail Michailidis, Dimitrios G. Karpouzas, Athanassios Molassiotis (2026). Inside the kiwifruit microcosm: tissue-specific microbiome shifts driven by cold storage and 1-MCP. Postharvest Biology and Technology 235 (6):114202. [*equal contribution] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2026.114202

Bekris, F., Papadopoulou, E., Vasileiadis, S., Karapetsas, N., Theocharis, S., Alexandridis, T. K., Koundouras, S., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2025). Vintage and terroir are the strongest determinants of grapevine carposphere microbiome in the viticultural zone of Drama, Greece. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 101(2), fiaf008. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiaf008

Bekris, F., Lola, D., Papadopoulou, E., Vasileiadis, S., Paramithiotis, S., Kotseridis, Y., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2024). Spontaneous vinification supports different microbiota, volatilome and leads to wines with different sensory attributes compared to vinifications inoculated with commercial and indigenous to vidiano cultivar Saccharomyces cerevisiae. LWT, 205, 116543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2024.116543

Elena Papadopoulou*, Fotiοs Bekris*, Sotirios Vasileiadis, Afroditi Krokida, Theodora Rouvali, Aristidis S. Veskoukis, Kalliopi Liadaki, Demetrios Kouretas, Dimitrios G. Karpouzas (2023). Vineyard-mediated factors are still operative in spontaneous and commercial fermentations shaping the vinification microbial community and affecting the antioxidant and anticancer properties of wines. Food Research International 173 (2): 113359. [*equal contribution] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2023.113359

Bekris, F., Vasileiadis, S., Papadopoulou, E., Samaras, A., Testempasis, S., Gkizi, D., Tavlaki, G., Tzima, A., Paplomatas, E., Markakis, E., Karaoglanidis, G., Papadopoulou, K. K., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2022). Correction to: Grapevine wood microbiome analysis identifies key fungal pathogens and potential interactions with the bacterial community implicated in grapevine trunk disease appearance. Environmental Microbiome, 17(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40793-022-00405-5

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