Montpellier Scientific Community



Plant Genome and Development Laboratory (LGDP)

Director: Manuel ECHEVERRIA
Research area
The plant genome and development Laboratory (LGDP) Research Unit focuses on the following themes in Arabidopsis thaliana, rice, and maize model plants:
  • Organisation and the evolution of plant genomes
  • Study of gene regulation at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level
  • Redoxin regulation and oxidative stress
  • Seed development and embryogenesis
  • Functional Genomics of rice-pathogen interactions
Research highlights
Rice genomics and important rice genes
  • Engineering mapping populations and mutant T-DNA collection, mapping of major genes (RYMV resistance, aroma, fertility, nematode resistance) and positional cloning of them.
  • Two experts participating in the International Rice Annotation Program Genome, which is the reference for the rice genome (Tanaka et al, 2008).
  • Wide genome characterisation of transposable retroelements and their impact in rice genome evolution (Piegu et al, Genome Research, 2007).
  • The identification and functional characterisation of rice microRNAs, essential regulators of development and stress response (Lacombe et al, BMC Plant biology 2008).
Post-transcriptional gene regulation in Arabidopsis
  • The characterization of the new RNA polymerase IV system in plants and demonstration of its role in gene silencing (Pontier et al, Genes & Dev, 2005; Genes & Dev. 2007).
  • The identification and characterisation of small nucleolar RNAs and RNA processing activities controlling processing and modification of ribosomal RNAs and other RNA targets (Pontvianne et al, Mol Biol. Cell. 2007; Brown et al, Trends Plant Sci, 2008).
  • Identification and functional characterisation of RNA processing mechanisms and factors playing key roles in epigenetic, RNA modification and the biogenesis of small RNAs (siRNAS, snoRNAs, SINES, etc.). (Fleurdepine et al, Nucleic acids Res. 2006: Plouch-Pellissier et al, PloS Genetics, 2008).
  • Redoxins and the control of proteins by redox (Reicheld et al, Plant Cell 2007).
Plant Development
  • The identification of several embryogenesis mutants in Arabidopsis and the cloning of the corresponding genes (Ronceret et al, Plant J. 2008).
  • The identification of genes controlling zygotic development in plants (Baroux et al, Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. In press).
Staff profile
 
Total permanent staff Total Scientists Scientists with "HDR" [1] Post-doc fellows PhD
56
35
14
3
17
[1]French university degree for confirmed thesis supervisor
    
         
Research teams
  • Rice genetics and positional cloning of important rice genes
  • Rice genome evolution and domestication
  • Sequencing, annotation and evolution of plant genomes
  • Ribosomes biogenesis and the small RNAs Impact of Arabidopsis transposable elements
  • New transcriptional system in Arabidopsis
  • Developmental switches during seed development Redoxins
  • Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV)/rice interactions
  • Xanthomonas oryzae rice interactions
  • Role of parental genomic contributions during seed development
Platforms and other tools
LGDP laboratory has strong commitment to genomic programs for Genomes or EST libraries sequencing, as well as development of bioinformatics tools to annotate the plant genomes. It is currently part of the Genopôle Montpellier and is leading the DNA sequencing platform
Most important international partnerships
  • OMAP project Arizona Genomic Institute and University of Purdue
  • Generation Challenge Program (Cornell University, USA, CIAT, Colombia; Embrapa, Brazil, Warda, Benin; IER, Mali, INERA, Burkina Faso)
  • MicroRNA rice Project JSPS-CNRS, Nagoya University, Japan
  • Maize seed development project (CIMMYT, Mexico)
  • Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT, Colombia)
  • International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, Philippines)
Facts and figures
Publications in international ranking journals
2005 - 2008 : 110
Representative publications
B. Piegu, R. Guyot, N. Picault, A. Roulin, A. Saniyal, H-R. Kim, K. Collura, D.S. Brar, S. Jackson, R.A. Wing and O. Panaud (2006). Doubling genome size without polyploidization : direct evidence of retrotransposition-driven genomic bursts in Oryza genus. Genome Research. 16 : 1262-1269.

Albar L., Bangratz-Reyser M., Hébrard E., Ndjondjop M-N., Jones M. and A. Ghesquière (2006) Mutations in the eIF(iso)4G translation initiation factor confer high resistance of rice to Rice yelow mottle virus. Plant Journal 47: 417-426

El-Shami M., Pontier D., Lahmy S., Braun L., Picart C., Vega D., Hakimi M.-A., Jacobsen S. E., Cooke R., Lagrange T. (2007). Reiterated WG/GW motifs form functionally and evolutionarily conserved ARGONAUTE-binding platforms in RNAi-related components. Genes Dev. 21(20) : 2539-2544.

Pontier D., Yahubyan G., Vega D., Bulski A., Saez-Vasquez J., Hakimi MA., Lerbs-Mache S., Colot V. and Lagrange T. (2005) Reinforcement of silencing at transposons and highly repeated sequences requires the concerted action of two distinct RNA polymerases IV in Arabidopsis. Genes Dev 19, 2030-2040

Ronceret A., Gadea-Vacas J., Guilleminot J., Lincker F., Delorme V., Lahmy S., Pelletier G., Chaboute ME., Devic M. (2008) The first zygotic division in Arabidopsis requires de novo transcription of thymidylate kinase.Plant J. 53, 776-789.
Total annual budget (2008)
Total annual budget (k€- excluding salaries)
 416
External contracts (k€)
 725