The Plant Health Institute of Montpellier (PHIM) is a research unit focused on the interactions between plants and their biotic environment, whether pathogenic or beneficial, that affect plant health. PHIM’s major objectives are to understand how plants interact with microbes, analyze the impact of these interactions on plant health, and propose solutions to ensure crop productivity in a durable way.
Several of PHIM’s research teams work on rice, investigating the molecular basis of interactions, the evolution of pathogen populations, the epidemiology of and resistance to major rice diseases caused by fungi (rice blast and brown spot), viruses (mostly yellow mottle disease), bacteria (bacterial leaf blight, bacterial leaf streak, bacterial panicle blight) and root-knot nematodes. Beneficial micro-organisms are also being investigated through for example the description of bacterial and fungal root- microbiota, the adaptation of rice-root associated bacteria, and the links between rice microbiota and resistance to major diseases.
A diversity of approaches are brought to bear to resolve the questions surrounding rice health, including: 1) molecular biology, 2) population genetics and genomics 3) epidemiology, 4) population dynamics and modeling. Activities are executed from the molecular to field and regional level.
In addition to the scientific knowledge produced, which is shared through numerous scientific publications, PHIM is actively involved in (1) educating the next generation of researchers through hands-on scientific training, (2) providing solutions that will ensure healthy rice plants through e.g. genetic resistance, biocontrol and biostimulation, (3) giving agricultural advice to rice farmers, as well as (4) providing epidemio-surveillance tools to public authorities.
PHIM’s Rice research activities are primarily implemented in France, West-Africa and Madagascar, and in Asia in Cambodia, China and VietNam. The unit works in close collaboration with national and international research centers and numerous universities. Moreover, the unit is involved in several Joint International Laboratories like PathoBios in Burkina Faso, Plantomix in China and Healthy Rice in Cambodia.
The PHIM Research teams working on rice are:
VICITA: Virus / cereal interactions in tropical agro-ecosystems
BLAST : Evolutionary biology of blast and other fungal pathogens of rice, cereals and other plants
