Context

Countless plant viruses infect almost all crops worldwide and can cause tremendous yield losses. Hundreds of them are transmitted by insect vectors while feeding and hopping from plant to plant. Aphids are phloem-feeding hemipterans that vector around 30% of known plant viruses.

Research objectives

Using multiple research technologies, we explore virus-aphid interactions at the molecular scale to identify virus receptors in the vector aphids’ stylets (mouthparts). We identified several cuticular proteins acting as viral receptors at the cuticle surface and named them stylins. We are actively working on characterizing their function and role in virus transmission. We also use evolutionary analyses of the identified putative receptors to describe their evolution and differentiation in other insects.

Stylets play a central role in virus transmission and plant-aphid interactions, and the team works to decipher their biogenesis and the formation of the acrostyle, the organ harboring virus receptors. We advanced using innovative 3D imaging technologies to study the stylet biogenesis. We started combining transcriptomics and proteomics approaches to characterize this process.

In the context of climate change, the team studies the influence of multiple environmental parameters (biotic and abiotic) on plant virus transmission. We characterize the impact of environmental factors on virus transmission by aphids using multi-stress experimental approaches that we are actively developing and ameliorating. We are also interested in the characterization of the effects of viral infection on plants facing multi stress conditions.

Generating fundamental knowledge for innovation

Our research projects aim to identify the processes and molecules critical to virus transmission. The fundamental knowledge generated will be the basis for developing innovative methods to interfere with aphid plant colonization and virus spread. Such novel crop protection approaches would allow the development of more sustainable agriculture and food production.

Research themes/disciplines

Virology, entomology, microscopy and 3D imaging, genomics, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry

Study Scale

From the molecular scale to that of the organism

The MOVE team

October 2023