Present Research @ PHIM, Montpellier

In September 2022, I joined the “Mechanisms of plant virus transmission by vectors” (MOVE) team that is part of the VIROM (Virology Montpellier) Department of the Plant Health Institute of Montpellier (PHIM). The group “studies the mechanisms of plant virus transmission by aphids, decipher virus-vector-plant interactions, and produces knowledge on the complex plant-virus interactions under adverse environmental conditions.”

Based on the previous and ongoing work of the MOVE team, my research project will take advantage of genomics resources and technologies to study stylet bundle and acrostyle. This cell-free cuticular organ plays a central role in virus-vector-plant interactions. My projects will couple experimental multi-omics and in silico cuticular protein evolutionary analyses to understand this organ’s biology and its role in virus transmission.