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Exploratory project MicroFlyAdapt (2020-2021)

MicroFlyAdapt - Role of plant-microbiota interactions in the adaptation of a pest insect to its host

The µFlyAdapt project aims to highlight the selective recruitment and role of rhizosphere microorganisms in the adaptation of a phytophagous root insect (the cabbage maggot Delia radicum) to its host plant (Brassica napus).

Context and challenges

During their development cycle, plants maintain dynamic and intimate interactions with communities of microorganisms. Numerous studies illustrate the importance of these interactions on the growth, health and evolution of host organisms hosting these microorganisms.

An attack on a cultivated plant by a root pest insect involves an interaction between the two holobionts: the plant and the root and rhizosphere microbiotas on the one hand and the insect and its microbiota on the other. Although these two entities are usually thought to differ, in fact they have a common feature because by necessarily circumventing the plant’s defence molecules, the micro-organisms in the root and rhizosphere of the plant are also likely to be recruited by the pest in its intestinal microbiota, because of their detoxifying properties.

Goals

We are therefore proposing to determine the relative importance of the heritability and environmental origin of the microbiota of a root pest and to measure the impact of this recruitment on the adaptive value of the pest.

To achieve this work, massive sequencing of the dynamics of the insect microbiota (Delia radicum, or the cabbage root fly) throughout its life cycle will be carried out in parallel with monitoring of the dynamics of communities in the roots and rhizosphere of two rapeseed genotypes with contrasting contents in defence compounds. During a more functional, second part of the study, we shall quantify the defence compounds and hormones in the roots and the saxA bacterial gene known to degrade plant defence compounds, and produce metatranscriptomic data in order to better understand the nature of the interactions between the plant, microbiotas and insect.

INRAE Partners

Unit / Team

Division

Expertise

IGEPP

Résistance et Adaptation

SPE - Santé des plantes et environnement

Écologie des communautés, interactions plante-microbiote-bioagresseurs, métaomiques, métabarcoding, culturomique, écologie fonctionnelle, métatranscriptomique, biologie moléculaire, bioanalyses, microbiologie, expérimentation plante microbiote.

Bioinformatique, biostatistiques.

IGEPP

Écologie et Génétique des Insectes

Univ. Rennes1

Biologie et écologie des insectes, écologie chimique, métabolites plante, bioanalyses, expérimentation insectes, microbiote insectes.

Agroécologie

Plateforme GenoSol

SPE - Santé des plantes et environnement

Bioanalyses, biologie moléculaire, développement et production de données moléculaires de diversité taxonomique et fonctionnelle.

MaIAGE

MPlateforme Migale

MATHNUM - Mathématiques et numérique

Modélisation, bioinformatique.

Non INRAE partners

Lab

Organism / Institute

Expertise

iDIV

Univ Leipzig (Allemagne)

Génomique D. radicum, écologie chimique (détoxification)

 

Contact - Coordination :

Modification date: 04 September 2024 | Publication date: 17 November 2021 | By: Com, DC