Pages personnelles, bibliographie et productions scientifiques
Research activities
My main research activities focus on soil microbiota and mycorrhizal symbioses, which link most plant roots to soil fungi. I use methods from molecular biology (NGS, transcriptomic) to investigate microbial populations and mycorrhizal communities, which are largely comprised of non-cultivable species. Moreover, isotopic methods (natural abundance of stable isotopes, 13C and 15N) provide efficient tools for investigating plant and fungal exchanges in situ.
I try to keep a strong naturalist eye and expertise in mycology and botany. Using mycorrhizal associations as model systems, my co-workers and I address questions about the ecology and evolution of symbiosis.
Four main research themes can be distinguished :
- Population genetics of ectomycorrhizal fungi (1994 – present), from local (forest stand) to global (trans-continental) scale, especially in the genus Laccaria, and more recently on Amanita and Tuber species.
- Ectomycorrhizal communities in Mediterranean forests (1998 – present), with a focus on their response to human and climatic disturbances, not only in terms of taxonomy, but also at functional level (secreted enzymatic activities).
- Mycoheterotrophy (2000 - present), i.e. biology and physiology of plants that use their mycorrhizal fungi as a carbon source, either exclusively (full mycoheterotrophy), or in addition to photosynthesis (green ‘mixotrophic’ plants). Identity of associated fungi and plant ecophysiology are under focus in temperate and tropical regions.
- Orchid mycorrhizae (2000 - present), fungal partners (diversity, coevolution), anatomy of the interaction (TEM), and plant metabolism (Cf. previous item ), in temperate and tropical regions.
- Networks of biological interactions (2000 - present), locally (mycorrhizal networks) or at evolutionary levels.
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I am more generally interested in symbiosis and its evolution in general, with a particular penchant for some models, such as the hyper-diverse Sebacinales, the orchid tribe Neottieae and its fascinating albino individuals and truffles (Tuber melanosporum).
This is a team story: as you will see from authors’ names in my publication list, this research would not have been possible without numerous collaborators!
I m an editor of the New Phytologist and an associate editor of Symbiosis, Botany Letters and Ecology Letters as well as Espèces I’m corresponding member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France and of the Institut Universitaire de France.
I am president of Fédération BioGée. I also work in the boards of the French botanical Society, France-Orchidée, the French, Agroforestery Association and Tela botanica.
I teach actively at Muséum and in various universities and ‘grandes écoles’ (AgroParisTech, Ecole Normale supérieure at Paris (rue d’Ulm), Saclay and Lyon, Science-Po Lille, Ecole des Hautes Études en Santé Publique ) and at University of Gdansk (Poland). My topics cover plants, algae and fungi (from biology to ecology), biology of interaction, as well as evolution and general ecology, and I teach as often as possible in the field.
I devote attention to future biology teachers, and invest in outreach by way of talks, field trips, papers, and books: eg. edited by Vuibert on symbiosis (2000), and by Actes Sud on microbiota in plants, animals and civilization (2017, translated into Polish, Dutch, Estonian, and Chinese), on tannins (2019, translated into Italian), on soil (2021) and on various biological topics for a large audience (Petites histoires naturelles, 2021).
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Pour que nature vive (vidéo 2020)
