INRA (France)

 

INRA Dijon, France

Burgundy is renowned for its prestigious vineyards, but also for its wide variety of agricultural lands.  Vineyards, cash crops and grassland can all be found in Burgundy.  The Dijon INRA Centre is established at the heart of this remarkable region, and conducts research in all the core scientific fields that are national priorities for the Institute: food, agriculture, and environment. These three research issues reflect current societal concerns and constitute the vital challenges of the future.

The INRA Centre of Dijon has two sites in Burgundy, the research centre head office at Rue Sully, Dijon, and the Epoisses experimental farm at Bretenière - a major advantage for the research centre since its 120 hectares are used for research in real field conditions. Other laboratories focusing on sociology and economy can be found within the walls of the AgroSup School, Dijon (http://www.dijon.inra.fr/en).

 

Department of Agroecology

The department of Agroecology is conducting researches aiming at forging a competitive agriculture, using less inputs and energy while simultaneously preserving or even improving the quality of the environment. To achieve these objectives Agroecology combines agronomy and ecology in order to achieve three objectives : (i) Uphold the quality of farm products, in sufficient quantities to guarantee the food security of the population, (ii) Reduce the use of inputs (pesticides, herbicides) while preserving farm performance, (iii) Propose innovative farming systems that respect and enhance environmental biodiversity.

 

Functional microbial ecology of chemicals (EMFI)

The functional microbial ecology of chemicals group (EMFI) focuses on the study of microbial processes involved in the adaptation to chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides) exposure in arable soils. These studies are conducted along two main axes, one aiming at estimating the impact of chemicals on key functional microbial communities involved in geochemical cycles (i.e. N cycle) and at studying the mechanisms responsible for the adaptation of soil microbial populations to enhanced biostransformation of the chemicals. These studies are conducted at different scales from gene to the environment, taking into considerations several proxy parameters as well as a number of parameters involved in global change. EMFI group comprised two components one dedicated to N cycle directed by Dr Laurent Philippot and one devoted to pesticide biodegradation directed by Dr Fabrice Martin-Laurent.


 

 

Dr Fabrice Martin-Laurent

 

 

He has a first degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology (Department of Biology, University of Burgundy, Dijon, France). He is Director of Research in the department of Agroecology of the INRA Center of Dijon where he was first appointed in November 1999 (http://www6.dijon.inra.fr/umragroecologie_eng/). He is directing the functional microbial ecology of chemicals group of the Agroecology department. He is Scientific Director of Welience Agro-Environment a spin-off company of the University of Burgundy (http://www.welience.com/fr/agro-environnement). He is co-animator of the ecotoxicology network of INRA and co-animator of the French microbial ecotoxicology network (http://ecotoxicomic.irstea.fr/).

 

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Research Interests

His main research interest is focused on adaptation processes of soil microbes to exposure to soil microbes. His research is conducted along to axes. One is aiming at estimating the impact of pesticides on soil microbial community and its consequences on soil ecosystemic services. Within this framework, he is developing new molecular methodologies based on environmental DNA extraction to monitor the impact of pesticides on soil quality. His work led to the development of new ISO standards such as ISO 11063 ‘direct DNA extraction from soils’. The second one is aiming at studying the mechanisms involved in microbial adaptation to pesticide enhanced biodegradation. This involves the isolation and the characterization of pesticide-degrading microbial populations which represent a reservoir of degrading genes and enzymes that could be used for bioremediation purposes. Molecular mechanisms involved in pesticide-degrading genes flow in the bacterial community are studied with a particular focus on the importance of mobile elements (IS) for the plasticity of pesticide-degrading gene potential.

 

 


 

 

Selected recent publications

  1. Topp E., Chapman R., Devers-Lamrani M., Hartmann A., Martin-Laurent F., Marti R., Sabourin L., Scott A., Sumaraha M. 2013. Accelerated Biodegradation of Veterinary Antibiotics in Agricultural Soil Following Long-Term Exposure, and Isolation of a Sulfonamide-Degrading Microbacterium. J. Env. Qual. 42: 173-178
  2. Martin-Laurent-F., Kandeler E., Petric I., Djuric S., Karpouzas D. 2013. ECOFUN-MICROBIODIV: an FP7 European project for developing and evaluating innovative tools for assessing the impact of pesticides on soil functional microbial diversity: towards new pesticide registration regulation? Env. Sci. Poll. Res. 2: 1203-1205
  3. Martin-Laurent F., Sahnoun M.M., Merlin C., Vollmer G., Lübke M. 2013. Detection and quantification of chlordecone in contaminated soils from the French West Indies by GC-MS using the 13C10-chlordecone stable isotope as a tracer. Environ. Sci. Poll. Res. DOI 10.1007/s11356-013-1839-y
  4. Pesce S., Beguet J., Rouard N., Devers-Lamrani D., Martin-Laurent F. 2013. Response of a diuron-degrading community to diuron exposure assessed by real-time quantitative PCR monitoring of phenylurea hydrolase A and B encoding genes. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 97: 1661-1668
  5. Udikovic-Kolic N., Scott C., Martin-Laurent F. 2012. Evolution of atrazine-degrading capabilities in the environment. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 96: 1175-1189
  6. Philippot L., Ritz K., Pandard P., Hallin S., Martin‐Laurent F. 2012. Standardisation of methods in soil microbiology: progress and challenges. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 82: 1-10

 

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