Montpellier Scientific Community



Plants and Cropping systems in Horticulture (PSH)

Director: Michel Génard
Research area
The Plants and Cropping systems in Horticulture (PSH) research unit is centered on horticultural food productions, mainly fresh fruits and vegetables. From an applied viewpoint, our goals are to design technical and landscape scenarios capable of enhancing plant product quality while improving environmental sustainability. To achieve these goals, we study different objects, the plant, the fruit, the pest population, and their response to various controlling factors. We also study cropping systems so as to describe plant functioning in interaction with the physical and biotic environment and the cultural practices.
Research highlights
  • Study of fleshy fruit quality, considering genetic and plant controls, in relation to the environment and cultural practices. Research is conducted from the viewpoint of a quantitative integration of physiological functions in models explaining fruit development.
  • Development of functional models accounting for (1) root architecture development, (2) short-term (i.e. diurnal) and long-term (i.e. ontogenic) changes in the rate of nitrate acquisition and use by horticultural plants and (3) water uptake and transfers within the tree architecture. This activity is sustained by the development of innovative tools and methods of measurements including biochemical analyses.
  • Study of pest-crop interactions and their consequences on product and environmental quality. Researches are based on functional and modelling approaches and include analyses of both technical systems and responses of pest and plant-soil to cultural and environmental conditions. Up-scaling from the field to the landscape is a recent tendency.
Staff profile
Total permanent staff Total Scientists Scientists with "HDR" [1] Post-doc fellows PhD
59
20
4
3
7
[1]French university degree for confirmed thesis supervisor
Research teams
Ecophysiology of fruit quality: the aim is to describe and model the processes accounting for fleshy fruit quality in relation to genetic and plant control, as influenced by the physical environment and the cultural practices.

Architecture and resources management: for the whole plant developing its architecture within local conditions and cultural practices, the research aims at analyzing the interactions between the plant resources (water, carbon, nitrogen, and other minerals) and the interactions between important plant's functions such as nutrient uptake, management and use, modulated by environmental and cultural effects.

Ecology of integrated production: this theme gathers studies aimed at characterizing the cultural practices (including their impacts on biodiversity), at investigating the pests' and soil-plant system's responses both to agricultural practices and environmental conditions, and at studying pest-crop interactions. Up-scaling from the field to the landscape is a recent tendency
Platforms and other tools
Technical platform for fruit quality analysis (shared equipment with two other units in the framework of the pole "integrated horticulture")
Most important international partnerships
  • CEBAS-CSIC and University of Cartagena (Spain)
  • University of Mondena (Italy)
  • University of Thessaly (Greece)
  • Hort. Research (New Zealand)
  • University of Michoacan (Mexico)
  • University of Talca (Chile)
Facts and figures
Publications in international ranking journals
2007: 24
2006: 20
2005: 30
Representative publications
Franck P., Reyes M., Olivares J., Sauphanor B. 2007. Genetic architecture in codling moth populations: comparison between microsatellite and insecticide resistant markers. Molecular Ecology.

Gautier H., Diakou-Verdin V., Benard C., Reich M., Buret M., Bourgaud F., Poëssel JL, Caris-Veyrat C., Génard M. 2008. How does tomato quality (sugar, acid and nutritional quality) vary with ripening stage, temperature, and irradiance? Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 56, 1241-1250.

Génard M., Bertin N., Borel C., Bussières P., Gautier H., Habib R., Léchaudel M., Lecomte A., Lescourret F., Lobit P., Quilot B. 2007. Towards a virtual fruit focusing on quality: modelling features and potential uses. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58, 917-928.

Sauge M. H., Mus F., Lacroze J. P., Pascal T., Kervella J., Poessel J. L. 2006. Genotypic variation in induced resistance and induced susceptibility in the peach - Myzus persicae aphid system. Oikos, 113, 305-313.

Pagès L., Vercambre G., Drouet J. L., Lecompte F., Collet C., Le Bot J. 2004. Root Typ: a generic model to depict and analyse the root system architecture. Plant and Soil. 258, 103-119.