Plant Adaptations to the Environmental Strength "APCE" Team - iEES Paris

So, how do plants tolerate and adapt to a changing environment ?
Under abiotic stresses, plant mitochondria appear to be a key player in perceiving stress, triggering tolerance mechanisms, and then resuming growth when conditions become favourable again.

Mitochondria do this by :

• supplying energy via ATP synthesis,
• generating metabolic flux from proline or ornithine catabolism, for example,
• and regulating redox homeostasis by modulating the NADH/NAD ratio and reactive oxygen species.

 

 

 

 

Our laboratory works on several plant species :

• Arabidopsis thaliana is a model plant with many natural accessions which can be used for in-depth molecular, biochemical and genetic studies.
• Eutrema salsugineum/Thellungiella salsuginea, a close relative of A. thaliana, is an extremophile adapted to harsh saline environments.
• In an international network of collaborations, we are also working on European searocket (Cakile maritima, Tunisia), wheat (Triticum turgidum, Algeria) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata, Algeria).
• In an iEES collaboration on urban trees, we are also working on the characterization of stress markers in silver lime (Tilia tomentosa).

Using these various species and accessions we aim to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of respiration and associated metabolism in plant adaptation to environmental constraints at both ecophysiological and evolutionary levels.

Most of our team members are Professors or Associate Professors who are involved in teaching biology and plant physiology at UPMC. We also provide training for Bachelor and Master students through internships in the laboratory.

Our main expertise lies in plant stress physiology, mitochondrial respiration, biochemistry, proline and amino acid metabolism, and plant development.