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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
I'm pleased to share that I've been awarded ANR JCJC funding for my "PHENOMANI" project. Can't wait to start exploring the molecular mechanisms of host and vector manipulation by plant viruses with colleagues.
Paul MUNSCH-MASSET will join the lab (10/2025) as a PhD student to explore these mechanisms
Another position will be advertised in late 2026 (engineer for 24 months on functional validation).
We 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)!
Gabin MARDOC joined the team as an Engineer in April 2024 to investigate sugar beet resistance to aphid feeding behavior and plant virus transmission using a newly developed video phenotyping tool.
Previous projects
During my second post-doc, I worked/collaborated on different projects involving 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’).
Earlier, during my PhD thesis and my first post-doc at UCR (University of California Riverside), 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.
Healthy and CYSDV-infected melon leaves
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