Projects

Research interests 

With my background in Entomology, Ecology and Phytopathology, my research aims to achieve a better understanding of the interactions between insect-transmitted plant pathogens, their host plant and insect vectors. I have been particularly interested in virus effects on i) host-plant phenotypes, ii) the behavioral and physiological responses of insect vectors, and iii) the consequences on virus transmission and dynamics.

Ongoing projects

We recently obtained funding for an ANR Ecophyto-Maturation project called 'AGIR' in collaboration with the Institut Technique de la Betterave and two INRAE research units (INRAE IGEPP @ Rennes and INRAE PSH @ Avignon)!

We are recruiting an "Ingénieur(e) d'Étude" (Master level, Bac+5) for this project, more information : https://jobs.inrae.fr/ot-19608 

My current projects involve i) the identification of the underlying molecular mechanisms of "viral manipulation", emphasizing the role of viral proteins and transcriptomic deregulations of infected plants and viruliferous aphids (ANR ROME), ii) the understanding of the complex interactions within a multi-infected plant, such as sugarbeet (projects CASDAR ‘ExtraPol’, PNRI ‘PROVIBE’ and project Région Grand-Est ‘MODEFY’).

Previous projects

In my previous projects, I have been interested in: i) studying the impacts of cultural practices (nitrogen fertilization and crop associations) on tri-trophic interactions plant-aphids-parasitoids (PhD thesis), ii) the effects of Rickettsia endosymbionts on whitefly feeding behavior, fitness, and virus transmission; and iii) the characterization of the effects of CYSDV on host plant chemistry and whitefly vector behavior.