Missions

• Understand the assembly processes of plant microbiota, with special emphasis on plant viromes.
• Develop a holistic vision of plant health that includes the microbiota and especially the plant virome.
• Develop and transfer tools for better monitoring and control of plant diseases (quarantine and expertise).
• Strengthen the higher education capacities of our partners.

General objectives

The main objective of the MicroQuar team is to decipher the plant microbiota and to analyze its role in the plant’s fitness (adaptive value). The assembly of the microbiota, the dynamics of the mutualistic (Fertibiota) and pathogenic (Pathobiota) microbial guilds, as well as their interactions with the host plant constitute the foundations of the team's research topics. These studies are carried out at different ecological scales and are aimed at developing innovative strategies for disease surveillance and prevention, as well as the control of plant pathogens within agro-ecosystems. The MicroQuar team hosts two expertise structures, one is an international sugarcane quarantine (Visacane) and the other one is a metagenomics support service for microbial diagnosis of agro-ecosystems (MetaHealth).

Scope/Research disciplines

• Bioinformatics.
• Ecology.
• Microbiology.
• Plant pathology.
• Plant quarantine.
• Plant symbiosis.
• Virology.

Expertise activities

MetaHealth is a support service in environmental genomics applied to the characterization of the microbiota, from the plant to the agro-ecosystem, to meet the challenges of soil and plant health.

Visacane is the sugarcane quarantine service of CIRAD. The main missions of Visacane are the detection of pathogens in imported plant material, the elimination of pathogens in infected material, and the international transfer of healthy planting material. Visacane has also training activities and an international expertise in sugarcane pathology.