Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 53 22
Key words: Arbuscular mycorrhiza, plant biology and physiology, symbiotic efficacy, receptors and signaling.
Benoit Lefebvre
DR2 INRAE research director, group leader
RESEARCH SUBJECTS
Since 2016, I have been developing new research lines at LIPME on arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis efficacy (see team research themes).
TRAINING / CAREER
2020 : DR (research director) INRAE
2012 : HDR (research area: characterization of LysM-RLKs involved in arbuscular mycorrhiza in non-legume species)
2011 : Sabbatical in P. Ronald group, at UC Davis, USA (research area: characterization of the RLK XA21, involved in rice immunity)
2007 : CR2 (researcher) INRAE
2004-2007 : Post-doct in J. Cullimore group at LIPME (research area: characterization of LysM-RLKs involved in nodulation in legumes)
2004 : Ph.D in M. Boutry group, at UC Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; (research area: characterization et targeting of plasma membrane H+-ATPases).
COLLABORATIONS
Christophe Roux (LRSV, France)
Jacques David / Hélène Freville (AGAP, France)
Cyrille Saintenac / Jacques Le Gouis (GDEC, France)
Thomas Girin / Sylvie Ferrario-Mery (IJPB, France)
Claire Jouany / Lionel Alletto (AGIR, France)
Guanghua He (Rice biology team, Southwest University, Chine)
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Deputy Director of the "Agrobiosciences, Interactions and Biodiversity" Research Federation (FR AIB)
Chair of the COST action ROOT-BENEFIT
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 54 00
Agnès Ardanuy
CRCN INRAE
RESEARCH SUBJECTS
In 2023 I joined the EFIS team to work on the functional ecology of arbuscular mycorrhiza in wheat.
TRAINING / CAREER
2023 : Researcher INRAE
2020-2023 : Postdoc in ecology, supervised by F. Laroche at UMR Dynafor (INRAE Toulouse). Funding ANR
2017-2020 : Postdoc in plant soil interactions, supervised by D. Johnson at the Soil and Ecosystem Ecology lab (the University of Manchester, UK). Funding NERC (UK) & Ramon Areces Foundation (Spain)
2017 : PhD in agricultural ecology, supervised by R. Albajes at the Entomology group (Universitat de Lleida, Spain). Funding by the Ministerio de Educación.
Virginie Gasciolli
TR INRAE (technician)
TRAINING / CAREER
Holder of a DUT in applied biology, I was recruited at the UMR181 INRA/ENVT (Toulouse) in 2001. In 2003, I joined the UMR1318 (Versailles) to work first on the mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation, and then on cellulose biosynthesis during the cell elongation, both in Arabidospsis thaliana. I then joined the LIPME in 2011, to participate in biochemical studies on plant receptors microbial symbiotic signals. Since 2021, I have joined Benoit Lefebvre's group to work on the efficacy of arbuscular mycorrhiza.
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 53 22
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 55 61
Thomas Souyris
PhD student
TRAINING / CAREER / RESEARCH SUBJECT
My academic path began with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology – Ecology – Evolution at Université Savoie Mont Blanc, followed by a Master’s degree in Mountain Environment Ecology, obtained in 2025.
During my second-year Master’s internship at LESSEM (INRAE), I discovered functional ecology by studying the ecological strategies and phenotypic differences of species used for revegetation, with a particular interest in the effect of seed origin.
My PhD, entitled “Role of root traits in nutrient acquisition via mycorrhizae”, aims to determine the importance of variations in wheat root traits for the establishment and functioning of the mycorrhizal symbiosis.
The project also seeks to assess how the diversity of root traits and the nutritional requirements of wheat influence the assembly of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities.
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 55 61
Audrey L'Héritier
PhD student
TRAINING / CAREER / RESEARCH SUBJECT
After completing a Master’s degree in microbiology with a specialization in plant-microorganism interactions at Claude Bernard University in Lyon, I was hired as a research engineer from January to June 2025 in the EFIS team. During this contract, I worked on several team projects investigating the impact of nutrient availability on the efficiency of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.
I began my PhD in October 2025 under the supervision of Benoît Lefebvre and Agnès Ardanuy. My thesis project focuses on the effect of agricultual practices on wheat-associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities and their role in wheat nutrition. As a first step, my objective is to characterize the influence of various factors such as the plant’s developmental stage, genotype, nitrogen availability, and the cropping system (conventional vs. conservation agriculture), on wheat mycorrhizal nutrition and the associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities, through several field experiments. The second step is to determine whether there is functional variability among the different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species within these communities, by constructing and inoculating synthetic communities.
Sébastien Fargeton
PhD student
TRAINING / CAREER / RESEARCH SUBJECT
Graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology and cellular physiology (Dijon, France), and an international master's degree in microbiology (Dijon, France / Mainz, Germany), I joined the EFIS team for my PhD in 2024. The PhD is supervised by Benoit LEFEBVRE (LIPME/Toulouse) and Pierre-Emmanuel COURTY (Agroécologie/DIJON) and focuses on the genetic and environmental factors of the N and P nutrition of poaceae through mycorrhiza.
More specifically, poaceae, like many plants, can obtain part of their nutrients through arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, these benefits can vary due to genetic (from the plant or the fungus) and environmental factors. In this project, we want to characterize these effects by transcriptomic and phenotypic approaches on the model plant Brachypodium distachyon.
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 55 61
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 55 61
Karolina Brzezinska
Post-doc
RESEARCH SUBJECTS
During my doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, I investigated the role of ubiquitination in plant immune responses using the barley - Puccinia hordei pathosystem. I also contributed to a collaborative project exploring how arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis influences plant transcriptional responses to P. hordei, which sparked my interest in the role of beneficial plant–microbe interactions in disease resistance.
In September 2026, I joined the EFIS team as a postdoctoral researcher to investigate mycorrhiza-induced resistance (MIR) in wheat. My research explores how interactions between wheat, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and pathogen genotypes, as well as and nutrient availability, influence MIR against Zymoseptoria tritici. By combining phenotypic analyses with transcriptomics and metabolomics, I aim to identify the genetic, molecular and metabolic factors underlying differences in MIR, helping to inform the effective use of AMF as a sustainable disease management strategy.
TRAINING / CAREER
2025–2026: Research Associate, University of Santiago de Compostela, SynPlant Lab.
2021–2026: PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology (Plant Sciences), University of Edinburgh.
Supervisor: Dr Beatriz Orosa-Puente
Thesis title: Understanding the role of ubiquitin signalling in barley to improve crop health
TEACHING
Olivier Catrice
IE INRAE (Research engineer)
TRAINING / CAREER / RESEARCH SUBJECT
Owner of a Plant Physiolgy Master, I work in the field of Academic Plant Biology Research for more than 20 years. During this time, I have developed many technical skills in Plant Cell Biology and Physiology, Biological Instrumentation, Phenotyping, In Vitro Culture etc., and knowledges in plant-microbes and plant-environment interactions. Hungry for new skills and knowledges, I am working to acquire some new ones.
Phone
+33 (0)5 61 28 55 61
Former members :
Céline Vicedo Research assistant (IE) 2024-2025
David Landry Post-doc 2023-2025
Margot Trinquier PhD student 2019-2024
Lauréna Medioni Research assistant (AI) 2021-2023
Yi Ding PhD student 2018-2022
Mégane Gaston Research assistant (IE) 2017-2021
Claudia Bartoli Post-doc 2016-2018
Camille Ribeyre Research assistant (AI) 2017-2018
Luis Buendia PhD student 2015-2018
Tongming Wang PhD student 2014-2017
Ariane Girardin PhD student 2014-2017
Marie Cumener Research assistant (IE) 2012-2014
Malick Mbengue PhD student 2007-2010