BioPlantProtec

The BioPlantProduct laboratory aims to develop a collaborative research platform involving the Plant Research Laboratory (LRSV, CNRS – Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France) and DE SANGOSSE (Agen, France), a company which develops and commercializes products for crop protection. The future of agriculture will require the development of new environmental-friendly agronomical strategies and safe for the consumers. Among these strategies, the development of products issued from natural sources to protect crops against biotic stresses and weeds (biocontrol products), will contribute to decrease the use of chemical pesticides. A major source of these natural products will be the microbial population living in the natural environment of plants in the soil (rhizosphere) or on the aerial plant tissues (phyllosphere) which contribute to the resistance of plants to microbial pathogens. Research projects conducted in the frame of the BioPlantProtec laboratory will aim to identify and to select beneficial microbial strains, displaying a protective activity against plant diseases. A complementary aspect will be identifying microbial strains showing herbicidal activity against selected weeds. Candidates will be selected for industrial development (industrial production, formulation, field tests) by the industrial partner. The scientific and technical program of the LabCom BioPlantProtec will include the development of high-throughput screening tools to select active strains, to studies their mode of action and to follow their behavior on the field. The identification and characterization of the most promising candidates will lay on the use of available technologies provided by the LRSV, including metabolomics (mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance), genomics, transciptomics and cellular imaging. The protocols developed in the frame of the LabCom will be also useful to help the industrial development of the products and to optimize their use. In parallel, projects targeted on some crop diseases will be defined in the beginning of the program, taking into account the market of biocontrol products on these diseases or weeds. Previous studies from the LRSV have shown the interest of these tools to identify active compounds, some of these being the subject of industrial development. The BioPlantProtec laboratory will mainly involve the Plant-Microbe Interactions team from the LRSV which develops researches on oomycete and fungal pathogenicity and on the plant immune system. The LabCom will beneficiate of the expertise from other LRSV teams which conduct studies on symbiotic microorganisms, plant development and cell signaling. By creating a joint laboratory between a successful company dedicated to the development of phytosanitory products, and a well-recognized plant science llaboratory (évaluated A+ by AERES, the french agency for research evaluation), the BioPlantProtec project will create a dynamic R&D structure in the field of biocontrol. The BioPlantProtec Laboratory will bring to the private partner new scientific and technological expertise which will be complementary to the others steps needed to launch new biocontrol products, and will offer to the public laboratory a unique opportunity to validate in the field results and concepts issued from fundamental studies.