Life Sciences Université Paris-Saclay

The IJPB is a multidisciplinary research institute associated to INRA, AgroParisTech and CNRS, and located on the INRA Versailles campus, next to the palace park.

Founded in 2010 from the gathering of 5 previous research laboratories, we have a long history of excellence in studying many of the fundamental mechanisms in biology and evolution. IJPB brings together a unique set of resources and expertise in biology, chemistry and mathematics dedicated to the study of plants. It covers a wide sphere of activities, which ranges from fundamental research work on the development, physiology and genetics of plants, to targeted research on both the food and non-food uses of plant products in the context of sustainable agriculture.

Visit our website : http://www-ijpb.versailles.inra.fr/en/institut/contacts.html

It will offer a chance to listen to some of the best research developed at IJPB (but only a fraction of it!) with talks from David Bouchez, Nicolas Arnaud, Hervé Vaucheret, José Jiménez-Gómez, Raphaël Mercier, Enrico Magnani, Helen North, Stéphanie Baumberger, Bertrand Hirel.
As well as talks from prestigious external invited speakers:
Thomas Greb (Heidelberg University, Germany)
Claudia Köhler (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden)
Gwyneth Ingram (ENS Lyon, France)
Yves Van de Peer (Ghent University, Belgium)
Jonathan Jones (Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom)

GM banana shows promise against deadly fungus strain
By Erik StokstadNov. 17, 2017 , 3:04 PM

A field trial in Australia has shown that genetically modified banana trees can resist the deadly fungus that causes Panama disease, which has devastated banana crops in Asia, Africa, and Australia and is a major threat for banana growers in the Americas. The transgenic plants might reach some farmers in as few as 5 years, but it’s unclear whether consumers will bite. The work may encourage plant breeders using traditional techniques to create resistant varieties.

Bananas, one of the world’s most popular fruits, are a staple for more than 400 million people and a huge export business. In the 1950s, a soil-dwelling fungus destroyed Latin American crops of the most popular variety at the time, Gros Michel; it was replaced by a resistant variety, Cavendish, which now makes up more than 40% of harvests worldwide. In the 1990s, the Cavendish’s own nemesis surfaced in Southeast Asia: a related fungus called Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4).

Fungicides can’t control TR4; disinfecting boots and farm tools helps, but not enough. TR4 was detected in the Middle East in 2012 and appeared in Mozambique a year later. It has reached all banana-growing regions of China and was confirmed in Laos and Vietnam this year. Only the Americas have been spared so far. “This is an extremely important crop with major problems,” says study co-author Gert Kema, a plant pathologist and banana breeder at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.

Les brassages génétiques lors de la reproduction sexuée peuvent être sources de nouveaux caractères. Dans la nature, ces échanges sont réduits, obligeant les sélectionneurs à multiplier les croisements pour obtenir les traits désirés. La technologie HYPER-REC, qui mute de manière ciblée quelques gènes identifiés, offre une solution pour augmenter les recombinaisons méiotiques. Elle fait partie du programme de pré-maturation financé par l’Inra.

LA RECHERCHE et les OBJECTIFS de DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE

 4 au 5 décembre 2017
 Grand amphithéâtre du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris

YOUR CAREER DAY is an entire day dedicated to answer the very famous questions:      

What are the different job opportunities after a PhD?
Where and how can they be found?
How can we have a better control of our own career?

During this event, many PhD holders working today in other fields than academic research will present their careers, their jobs, and answer your questions.

The registration dead line is the 22nd of November