To achieve this goal, it focuses on three main priorities.

• The first deals with factors that exist at the time of the establishment and the outcome of the interaction between plants and phytophagous and phytopathogenic organisms - insects, nematodes and oomycetes. These organisms represent major agricultural constraints and are responsible for extensive damage, leading to the massive use of chemical pesticides.

• The second concerns the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between plants in the legume family (peas, alfalfa, etc.) and bacteria of the genus Rhizobium. The increased use of these cultures should lead to the considerable reduction of the use of nitrogen fertilisers in agriculture.

These first two research priorities also allow us to develop a comparative approach to mechanisms that play a role in pathogenic and symbiotic interactions.

• The third deals with a higher trophic level and is devoted to the study of interactions between phytophagous insects and their parasites, a preferable means of pest control since it does not require chemical pesticides.

The “UMR” develops these priorities at different levels of study ranging from the molecular and cellular levels to evolutionary and populational processes. Research is based on an integrative approach grounded in genomics with emphasis on evolutionary approaches as well as on the desire to find a common ground between mechanistic and populational approaches.




The UMR is comprised of 41 researchers, 52 engineers and technicians, nine post-docs and 13 students preparing their theses. They are divided into seven teams:

• Biology of Interacting Populations

• Molecular and Behavioural Ecology

• Bacterial Entomotoxins

• Evolution and Specificity of Multitrophic Interactions

• Plant-Nematode Interactions

• Plant-Oomycete Interactions

• Legume-Rhizobium symbiotic interactions: Redox state and symbiosis