Muller Bertrand

My research themes

I study the response of plants to environmental stresses, in particular drought and high temperatures. As organ growth (leaves, roots, reproductive organs) is one of the first functions affected by these stresses, my work focuses on this process. I want to know what role the functions of acquisition and management of carbon and water flows play in these responses. I also seek to identify the genetic diversity of these responses and integrate it as model parameters. My research combines tools for measuring growth at different scales (using imaging tools, sensors, kinematic analyses), the physical environment of the plant (temperature, light, etc.) and the state of the plant (metabolic, hydraulic, hormonal) using biochemical or molecular markers. I also use genetic diversity (natural, mutants) as a lever to increase the power of the analyses. The variables that characterise the system (environment, genome) can be incorporated into functional or statistical models and build a continuum between genes, alleles, model parameters and plant behaviour. I work on various species with a particular focus on maize, wheat, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and grapevine.

Current projects

SOLACE https://www.solace-eu.net/

PHENOME-EMPHASIS https://www.phenome-emphasis.fr

EPPN2020 : https://eppn2020.plant-phenotyping.eu/

Thesis of Hong-Anh NGuyen : Connecting the dots between high-throughput phenotyping platforms and crop models

Main collaborations

P. Martre (INRAE, modèle Sirius Q), X. Draye (UCLouvain), G. Lobet (UCLouvain), L. Laplaze (IRD)