After conducting research on growth rhythms in pedunculate oak during my PhD thesis at the University of Angers, I completed my career with a post-doctoral fellowship on the development of the vascular system in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana at the Umea Plant Science Center (UPSC, Umea, Sweden). I was recruited at the IJPB on the Idf-Versailles-Grignon Center in 2011 to develop my research on the links between sugar transport (focusing on SWEET-type transporters), plant development and adaptation to the environment.

My research aims to answer the following questions: What are the consequences of a modification of the facilitated transport of sugars (by SWEET transporters) on the development and growth of plants? And more specifically, is the development of phloem and/or xylem impacted? And is the capacity of plants to adapt to environmental constraints modified? For this, I am particularly interested in the floral stem of the model species Arabidopsis thaliana which produces the majority of the nutrients that will be used for seed production. Concerning the methods, we mainly use molecular biology techniques, cytology, cellular imaging, vibrational spectroscopy (FTIR and Raman) as well as metabolomic analyses. In the long term, a better understanding of the transport and allocation of sugars within the floral stem should allow us to find new ways to improve the yield and quality of the seeds.