INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

INRAE is a French public research institute dedicated to agricultural science. It was founded in 1946 and is a Public Scientific and Technical Research Establishment under the joint authority of the Ministries of Research and Agriculture. Ranked the number one agricultural institute in Europe and number two in the world, INRAE carries out mission-oriented research for high-quality and healthy foods, competitive and sustainable agriculture and a preserved and valorised environment. The activities of the project will be carried out at the INRAE Research Unit Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay (IPS2-INRAE) and at the INRAE Experimental unit Saint-Martin-de-Hinx. IPS2-INRAE is a leading Institute in Plant Sciences in France located in the dynamic campus of University Paris-Saclay. The University Paris-Saclay corresponds to 15% of French public research with 60,000 students including 5,000 PhDs and 10,500 researchers (23% foreign). IPS2-INRAE has a long history in common bean disease resistance gene mapping, mainly with the fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, but also with the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola and the virus Bean pod mottle virus. Recently, it was involved in the sequencing of the common bean genome and adapted Virus Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) functional validation tool to common bean and pea. IPS2-INRAE has state-of-the- art facilities for plant phenotyping with a recent greenhouse, chambers compatible with pathogen tests and growth rooms where various environments can be reproduced. It is also equipped with transcriptomic, epigenomic and metabolomic platforms.

Role within INCREASE

In INCREASE, INRAE-IPS2 will characterise the molecular diversity of disease resistance genes against pathogens in common bean and lentil.

INRAE-Saint-Martin-de-Hinx will conduct field experiments, mainly about association between maize and common bean.

Main contacts

Photo of Dr Valérie Geffroy
Dr Valérie Geffroy
Group leader / Director of Research
Photo of Dr Ariane Gratias
Dr Ariane Gratias
Assistant Professor
Photo of Dr Stéphanie Pflieger
Dr Stéphanie Pflieger
Assistant Professor
Photo of Cyril Bauland
Cyril Bauland
Research Engineer
Photo of Carine Palaffre
Carine Palaffre
Research Engineer