Plant-Microorganism Interactions

Plants form the basis of our food chain, both directly and indirectly. In their natural environment, plants are constantly interacting with microorganisms that make up their microbiome. Some of these microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.) cause serious damage to crops, while others generally improve plant health (nutrition, growth, or disease resistance). Consequently, a strategy for addressing the challenges of both production and food safety—for animals and humans alike—is to understand how plants react to, adapt to, and potentially benefit from the presence of microorganisms in their environment.

Objectives

Through a balanced combination of academic and practical training (10 months of laboratory internships spread across the M1 and M2 years), the goal of the IPM program is to train students to describe and understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant interactions with their biotic environment. This program draws on the extensive scientific expertise in this field within the I-Site MUSE consortium (University of Montpellier, CIRAD, IRD, INRAE, CNRS, and Institut Agro Montpellier).

Course Content

List of Course Units

M1, 1st semester

TU to all four Plant Biology tracks:
- Biostatistics with R
- Plant Molecular Genetics
- Plant Nutrition
- Plant Development
- Plant-Microorganism Interactions
- Fundamentals of Ecophysiology
TU :
- Elements of Plant Pathology
- Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology

M1, 2nd semester

TU to All 4 Plant Biology Tracks:
- Experimental Approaches to Plant Biology
- Bioinformatics: Data and Databases
- Bibliographic Summary
- Project Management
An TU to choose from:
- Gene Networks—Modeling
- Breeding of Tropical and Mediterranean Plants