Evolution of Plant - Microbe Interactions

Organisms from the green lineage interact with a huge diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria or filamentous fungi and oomycetes. The outcome of these interactions ranges from parasitic to mutualistic.

Since plants colonized lands 450 million years ago, these associations have evolved in opposite directions. Mutualism has been maintained for hundreds of million years whereas the interactions with parasites are fast evolving.

Studying the interactions between plant lineages spanning one billion years of diversification and multiple microorganisms, our goals are to discover the plant molecular mechanisms behind mutualistic and parasitic interactions with microorganisms, to understand how they evolve and evolved, and to use these mechanisms to improve crops using synthetic biology.

MUTUALISTIC SYMBIOSES

Mutualism between plants and microorganisms has been essential for the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems for millions of years. It has been proposed that even the colonization of lands by plants was facilitated by a mutualistic symbiosis formed with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This symbiosis, by far the most widespread in land plants, results in the accommodation of the symbiotic fungus inside the plant cells. Following this initial symbiosis, multiple other intracellular symbioses have evolved in plants as diverse as orchids, Ericaceae such as cranberry, legumes or the Jungermanniales, a group of bryophytes. Other symbiotic associations have evolved with extracellular symbionts, such as lichens in green algae and ectomycorrhizae in multiple vascular plants lineages. These symbioses provide numerous benefits, improving plant nutrient acquisition and fitness. Despite their absolute importance in terrestrial ecosystems, the molecular mechanisms underlying the origin and subsequent evolution of intracellular symbioses in plants remain poorly understood.

Our research aims at understanding how these symbiotic associations evolved. Using combinations of phylogenomics, biochemistry and genetics in multiple plants we try to determine the molecular bases of the origin, conservation and diversification of these associations.

The liverwort Calypogeia fissa (left) and the Ericaceae Rhododendron arboreum (right) interacting with a mutualistic, intracellular, fungal symbiont.

PLANT - PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS

Sincee their origin more than a billion years ago, green organisms - algae and land plants - have faced a tremeendous diversity of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. The ability to limit the infection by these parasites varies from species to species and, even, between accessions of a given species. Yet, the mechanisms governing immunity have been almost exclusively in a single group of plants: the flowering plants.

We aim at understanding immunity and resistance mechanisms in the other groups of plants: non-vascular plants such as mosses and liverworts, but also ferns or green algae. We deploy combinations of phylogenomics, Genome Wide Association Studies and reverse genetics.

We ambition to discover novel resistance mechanisms in plants.

The liverwort Marchantia polymorpha interacting with pathogenic microorganisms.

Location

The "Evolution of Plant - Microbe Interaction" team is located in the Plant Science Research laboratory (LRSV - www.lrsv.ups-tlse.fr), a joint unit between the CNRS and the University of Toulouse.

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