Pascal Gantet, research projects
Since 2004, combining functionnal genomics, transcriptomics, systems biology and association genetics approaches my main research topic concerns the research and functional characterization of gene regulatory networks involved in crown root differentiation in rice.
Crown roots inducible systems are used to generate transcriptomic kinetics during crown root initiation and early development, from which gene regulatory networks are infered. Regulatory links between genes are validated with transcient or stable transformation experiments. Genes identified as the major hubs of the gene regulatory networks are further functionally studied.
This research is realized in part in partnership with the society Limagrain (Dr. C. Sallaud) and the CIRAD (Dr. C. Périn, UMR AGAP) and is supported by two projects that I am coordinating (project ROOTNET from Fondation Agropolis, 2015-2018 and project MASTEROOT, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, n° ANR-17-CE20-0028-01, 2018-2022).
Since 2023 I am collaborating with the Dr. Shri Ram Yadav from the Indian Institute of Technology of Roorkee in India to functionnally characterize some key genes involved in crown root development acting downstream CRL1. This collaboration was extented to the study of the involvment of a set of AP2/ERF transcription factors in different branching events in rice with the support of a 3 years CEFIPRA project (Project 6903-2 ; 2023-2026)
Since 2015, I am collaborating with Dr. Véronique Bergougnoux-Fojtik, Centre of the Region Hana for Biotechnological and Agriculture Research, University Palacky Olomouc, Czech Republic, who is developping a similar research on barley. For the period 2017-2018 this was supported by a Partenariat Hubert Curien Barrande (n°38067ZF). In this framework, since 2019 and until june 2023, I was involved as key researcher in the Centre of the Region Hana for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research of University Palacky Olomouc, in the scope of the European Regional Development Fund project "Plants as a tool for sustainable global development" (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000827) to promote rice to barley translational research (work package "Genome editing for drought tolerance in cereals").
From Lavarenne et al., 2019 The Plant Journal
100: 954-968
In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Hoang Thi Giang from the Agricultural Genetics Institute of Hanoi, Vietnam and Dr. B. Courtois from CIRAD, we identified a major QTL governing crown root number in a core collection of 200 rice Vietnamese varieties by association studies.The gene supporting this QTL is researched and functionally characterized. Other QTLs involved in rice water deficit, salinity tolerance, yield under stress, panicle branching, tillering, root anatomy, ions uptaque, grain quality are also identified and studied (see publications) All these researchs are also supported by the Global Rice Scientific Partnership of the CGIAR Researh Program on Rice (2017-2021). We recently obtained a prize of the French Academy of Science to integrate and to valorizate all the data obtained with the Vietnamese landraces collection (Prix Tremplin Asean, 2023-2025, PIs Dr. Hoang Thi Giang & Dr. Stefan Jouannic)
From Coudert et al., 2015, New Phytol, 206:243-254
From Phung et al., BMC Plant Biology, 2014. 14, 371 ; From Phung et al., BMC Plant Biology, 2016. 16, 64
From 1994 to 2004 I worked on the isolation and the functional characterization of transcription factors involved in the regulation of the expression of genes encoding enzymes of the terpene indole alkaloids biosynthesis pathway in Catharanthus roseus.
This allowed to precise the functional map of the of the strictosidine synthase gene promoter, the regulatory cascade governing its expression in response to jasmonate, and to identify new metabolic engineering tools.
This work was done at Tours University (EA 2106, Plant Biocompounds and Biotechnology) in collaboration with the group of Johan Memelink from Leiden University, Netherlands.
Major data have been published and you can refer to my publication list for further details.
If you want further details on these research projects, or join the team for training, please contact me