Randall Wisser, the geneticist who combines AI and biodiversity

The future of seeds depends on biodiversity. While this assertion is certainly not shared by all seed geneticists, it is championed by Randall Wisser. Appointed research director at INRAE’s Laboratory of Plant Ecophysiology under Environmental Stress (LEPSE), the American geneticist explains: “I am part of the scientific community that is trying to understand the richness of seed biodiversity and that recognizes that overly limited crop diversity certainly poses a threat to the sustainability of the system.” Having worked at the University of Delaware just a few months ago, he has joined Montpellier precisely “to tackle, within this international agricultural research hub, the challenges facing agriculture due to climate change.”

Since completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in New York, Randall Wisser—who, with that typically American warmth, is quickly referred to as Randy—has been fascinated by the complexity of life through his observation of plant disease resistance. He studies the various protective mechanisms at the molecular level, examining the variations from one plant to another. The researcher understands that reducing the resistance mechanism to the expression of a single gene offers much less stable protection than when the plant’s entire defense machinery is mobilized.

Virtual modeling

As is typical in the United States, he works with corn and also studies how to adapt tropical varieties to a more northern environment. The goal is to tap into the biodiversity of native varieties to identify traits that confer resistance to certain diseases or drought—traits not found in the limited pool of Western cultivated varieties—and then adapt them to their new environment. “Our results have shown that this adaptation happens fairly quickly—in about ten years,” comments Randy Wisser. But what is fast on a research scale is an eternity for breeders. All the more so in the context of rapid climate change. This is where computational power comes into play, enabling the modeling of seed evolution in a new environment. “Through our research, we are simultaneously developing a genomic prediction technique and a virtual modeling system that, we hope, will shorten these years and adapt the right material to the target environment,” explains the geneticist.

It was on the strength of this expertise that he was recruited to LEPSE. This laboratory is home to the PhenoArch platform, which is strategic to its research. By analyzing, at the genetic level, how plants respond (in terms of growth, transpiration, and development) to environmental conditions (drought, temperature, and light), the platform provides a wealth of data for Randy Wisser’s research. At INRAE, he will help study how exotic plant varieties adapt to new environments, particularly in the context of climate scientists’ forecasts.

“The Essence of Science”

As for his own adjustment to the French research ecosystem, his arrival in late November is still too recent to draw any conclusions. But an initial research stay at INRAE had won him over, as he says he found “the essence of science” there through teamwork. That’s no small compliment, coming from someone who acknowledges that in the United States, at this stage of his career, a researcher has his own lab equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. “The United States is founded on the concept of independence, so I believe the nature of collaboration is different. At LEPSE, I feel there’s a team dynamic where the result is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Despite his desire to look on the bright side, Randy Wisser hints that arriving in France during the pandemic was no walk in the park. He’s not quite sure whether it was due to immigration or the health crisis when he describes himself as an “Airbnb gypsy” for three months before finally finding a place to live. And he recounts that surreal moment when, along with his wife and two children, they joined the dozen or so passengers on the Airbus A380 taking them to the Old Continent.

• UMR LEPSE Website