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Context and challenges

In agroecosystems, the contamination of soils by xenobiotic compounds such as pesticides used in conventional agriculture and antibiotics used to treat livestock or supplied via organic soil fertilisation, can also cause the contamination of surface or ground water through transfer of these compounds and/or their degradation intermediaries.

These xenobiotics and their transformation products can exert harmful effects on organisms living in the soil and on the ecosystem functions and services to which they contribute. The development of bioremediation methods based on the use of the biodegradation capacities of pesticides and antibiotics (i.e. antibiotrophy) of certain bacterial guilds to reduce the persistence of these harmful substances in recipient agricultural soils and water courses could therefore improve the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems.

Goals

The aim of this exploratory project is to develop an innovative protocol for the management of bacterial communities based on the concepts and methods used for genomic selection, and to evaluate their use for bioremediation in different agroecosystem compartments by means of laboratory tests on polluted agricultural soils and sediments.

INRAE Partners

Non-INRAE partners