Science at UM [S01-ep20]: From the natural immunity of plants to X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy
This week, Thomas Kroj, a biologist at PHIM, details his study on stimulating the natural immunity of plants, published in Nature Communications. In the second part of the program, Julien Fullenwarth from theICGM explains X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.
Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, or in their milder form, "plant protection products." Synthetic pesticides first appeared on the global agricultural scene in the 1930s. The rest of the story is well known: their use became widespread as the population grew and agriculture intensified. Criticism also quickly intensified, and scientific studies have since continued to demonstrate the dangers of pesticides to human health and biodiversity.
However, combating pesticide use is not so simple. The population continues to grow, and with it our food needs. And while organic food is becoming more common on our plates, it is still far from winning over professionals in the agri-food industry.
So how can we protect crops from disease while ensuring good agricultural production? This is the challenge facing our societies as they undergo the necessary agricultural transition to meet the food challenges of tomorrow.
Faced with this challenge, science clearly has a role to play, as demonstrated by this study conducted by a team in Montpellier bringing together researchers from INRAE, CNRS, and Inserm. They focused on rice and found that this plant was capable of using cunning to deceive pathogens and stimulate its immune response by using a decoy. All that remained was to draw inspiration from this method to boost the plant genome a little and observe promising results published last March in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
Thomas Kroj is our guest. He is a biologist at PHIM, the Plant Health Institute Montpellier.
See also:
- Teaching plants to better defend themselves against disease using their natural weapons, CNRS press release, March 22, 2022.
- New specificity of recognition in a plant immune receptor through molecular engineering of its integrated domain, published in Nature Communications, March 21, 2022.
In the second part of the program, we take you to the Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier. If, like me, X-rays and gamma rays inevitably bring to mind the world of Marvel, then our superhero of the day is Julien Fullenwarth. He is an engineer and in his everyday life he analyzes materials using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy on the X-ray and gamma ray network platform.
At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!
Production: Universityof Montpellier/Divergence FM
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: AlinePériault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Director: Anna Demeulandre
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