OUR RESEARCH
Developmental plasticity is a key feature of plants. Since plants produce new organs continuously throughout their lives, their development is strongly affected by the environment and allows a good level of adaptation.
Our lab studies both the fundamental mechanisms of root development and its adaptation to the environment.
Why study root development ?
Roots are very plastic by nature and are therefore a well-suited model to study developmental plasticity. Also roots are easy to image organs and they can be used with a full suite of colorful markers !
Which plants do we study ?
We use the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana since it is small and easy to use ! We also study white lupin (Lupinus albus) since it produces cluster roots in reponse to phosphate deficiency.
What is the goal of our study ?
The very first goal of our research is to understand plants and identify molecular mechanisms. Once this is done, the knowledge can be used for applications. Since white lupin is a crop in Europe, it can be used directly.