Know more

Education                

•  2008 Research Supervisor Certificate, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France)
• 1999 Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and Molecular Genetics, University of Paris XI Orsay (France).
• 1995 Master in Plant Pathology, Universities of Paris XI & VI - INAPG (France).

Current and previous Positions

• 2022-present   Visiting Professor at the International Research Organisation for Advanced Science and Technology (IROAST), Kumamoto University (Japan).
• 1999-present Senior scientist (DR2 permanent position INRA), Plant-Nematode Interaction team – Molecular determinants of the compatible interaction – UMR Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, INRAE – Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS.

Composition of the group: 2 INRAE scientist, 1 Associate Professor, 2 PhD students, 3 Master students, 2 contractual engineers/technicians, 1 INRAE technician; Since 2022, co-supervision of the Plant-Nematode Interaction (IPN) team (10 scientists)

• 1999-2000 Post-doctoral position - Cell Biology Lab, John Innes Centre Norwich (UK).

Major interests

Among plant-parasitic nematodes, the root-knot nematodes (RKNs) of the Meloidogyne spp. are the most economically important genus. RKN are root parasitic worms able to infect nearly all crop species and have a wide geographic distribution. During infection, RKNs establish and maintain an intimate relationship with the host plant. This includes the creation of a specialized nutritional structure composed of multinucleate and hypertrophied giant cells, which result from the redifferentiation of vascular root cells. Giant cells constitute the sole source of nutrients for the nematode and are essential for growth and reproduction. Hyperplasia of surrounding root cells leads to the formation of the gall or root-knot, an easily recognized symptom of plant infection by RKNs. Secreted effectors produced in nematode salivary glands and injected into plant cells through a specialized feeding structure called the stylet play a critical role in the formation of giant cells.

Our group is interested in understanding the complex dialogue between RKNs (mainly M. incognita and M. enterolobii) and their host plants using Arabidopsis, Solanaceae (tomato, tobacco) and Medicago truncatula as model plants. We are studying both partners of the interaction in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of the plant functions corrupted by the pathogens and how RKNs manipulate key plant processes to their own profit. In the past, we characterized key regulators, essential for RKN-induced giant cell ontogenesis and nematode development: a protein implicated in microtubule reorganization (AtMAP65-3) (Caillaud et al., 2008), (homo)glutathione molecules (Baldacci et al, 2012) and the receptor of a signalling peptide PSK (AtPSKR1) (Rodiuc et al., 2015).

We are currently developing projects to (i) characterize RKN-specific effectors and their plant targets; (ii) explore the role of small non-coding RNAs in the regulation of plant gene expression in galls and small peptides and (iii) study host perception by nematodes pre-parasitic juveniles. Thus, we have characterized a set of conserved RKN effectors and their plant targets (Mejias et al., 2021 & 2022; Truong et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2019, 2020 & 2021), characterized the implication of microRNAs, e.g. miR159 and copper miRNAs, in the plant response to the root-knot nematodes (Medina et al., 2017; Noureddine et al. 2022) and characterized nematode attracting molecules (Tsai et al., 2019; Oota et al., 2020).

Main Recent Fundings

• INRA-Syngenta TARGETOME 2014-2019 and INRAE-Syngenta NEM-TARGETOME project 2020-2024 (coordination)
• French-Japanese bilateral collaboration programs PHC SAKURA 2016 #35891VD (co-coordination with Pr S Sawa, Kumamoto University) “Study of the molecular dialogue between plant-parasitic root-knot nematodes and their host plant” and PHC SAKURA 2019 (coordinated by Y. Kadota Riken, Yokohama, Japan and S Jaubert-Possamai, France) « Molecular analyses of recognition mechanisms during plant and plant-parasitic nematode interactions»
• French-Chinese bilateral collaboration program PHC XU GUANGQI 2020 #45478PF (co-coordination)
• ANR AAPG 2018 ADMIRE « ADaptation of MeloIdogyne to host Resistance” Partnership with IHPE Perpignan and IPMC Sophia Antipolis, France. (coordination P. Abad).
  • ANR AAPG 2020 STRESS-PEPT “Characterization of secreted peptides involved in the response to biotic stress in Arabidopsis”; Partnership with IRHS Angers, LRSV Toulouse, PAPPSO Paris XI, France.
  • ANR AAPG 2020 SYMPA-PEP «SYMbiotic & PAthogenic PEPtides at the interface between plants and microorganisms» Partnership with N. Frei-dit-Frey (LRSV, Castanet-Tolosan) & F. Frugier (IPS2, Paris-Saclay), France.
  • ANR AAPG 2021 MASH “Modulation of mRNA alternative splicing by root-knot nematode” 2022-2025 (coordination). Partnership J Bazin (IPS2, Paris Saclay), France.

Additional Activities

- Elected member of INRA scientific committees, scientist assessment and Université Côte d’Azur Labex Signalife scientific committee (since 2017) and PhD (since 2013) committees. Selection of international candidates for the labex Chairs of Excellence in 2021 and 2022.

- Evaluation of national or international projects (NWO,NSF and BARD), units (AERES, HCERES 2016, 2020-2021).

- Evaluation of articles for international journals (e.g. PNAS, Plant Cell, Plant Journal, New Phytol, Plant Physiology, Molecular Plant, J Exp. Bot., PLoS Pathogens …)

- Organisation committee of national and international meetings: Effectome (2012-2020) and MoDip “Molecular Dialogue in plant-microbe interaction” (2021) INRAE network annual meeting (Lauret, 50-70 participants), Signalife labex annual meeting (2017, 2020 & 2022; Nice, 130 participants); Nice Labex RNA meeting (2019 & 2022; Nice, 130 participants), International Congress of Nematology (ICN) 2022 (Antibes-Juan les pins, 600 participants).

- Teaching in several Master programs in Université Côte d’Azur (Masters SVS, BOOST)(since 2012), Université Toulouse, Université Oran-Algeria (2015-2016); Erasmus + Capacity building in Higher Education: Nematology Education in Sub-Sahara Africa « NEMEDUSSA » (molecular tools in Nematology 2021; young African scientists from Ouganda, Ethiopia, South Africa).

- PhD committees in France and Europe (30) and PhD supervisor (8 including Dr Yara Noureddine 2021; Salomé Soulé and Sarah Ranty-Roby, ongoing).

- Scientific and technical information for a wide audience, dissemination actions for schools. Participation in the MEDITES project to develop scientific culture among young people in priority areas: intervention in disadvantaged secondary schools (2015-2018); Hosting of secondary school students, presentation of the profession of researcher in a college.

Publications

68 publications in international peer-reviewed journals/books and 6 patents; h-index 27; citations WoS 3161, including Nature Biotechnology, Curr. Opin. Biotech., Plant Cell, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS One, Plant J, New Phytol., MPMI, Genes & Development, EMBO J. and 132 congress communications (56 oral communications including : International Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI), International Congress of Nematology (ICN), Congress of the European Society of Nematologists (ESN), Gordon Conference).

In the past 5 years…

1. Noureddine, Y., da Rocha, M., Thomine, S., Quentin, M., Abad, P., Favery, B., Jaubert-Possamai, S. (2021) Copper microRNAs govern the formation of giant feeding cells induced by the root knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita in Arabidopsis thaliana BioRxiv. https://doi.org/110.1101/2021.10.25.465754.
2. Mejias, J., Chen, Y.P., Bazin, J., Truong, N-M., Mulet, K., Y. Noureddine, Jaubert-Posamai, S., Ranty-Roby, S., Soulé S, Abad, P., Crespi, M., Favery, B.* and Quentin, M.* (2022) Silencing the conserved small nuclear ribonucleoprotein SmD1 target gene alters susceptibility to root-knot nematodes in plants. Published in BioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.25.398149 and Plant Physiology in press. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/plphys/kiac155/6564232 * co-corresponding authors.
3. Hassanaly-Goulamhoussen, R., De Carvalho Augusto, R., Marteu-Garello, N., Péré, A., Favery, B., Da Rocha, M., Danchin, E., Abad, P., Grunau, C., Perfus-Barbeoch, L. (2021) Chromatin landscape dynamics in development of the plant parasitic nematode Meloidogyne incognita. Published in BioRxiv and Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 9:765690. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.765690. PMID: 34938734
4. Mejias, J., Bazin, J., Truong, N-M., Marteu, N., Sawa, S., Crespi, M.D., Vaucheret, H., Abad, P., Favery, B.* and Quentin, M.* (2021) The Root-Knot Nematode Effector MiEFF18 Interacts with the Plant Core Spliceosomal Protein SmD1 Required for Giant Cell Formation. New Phytologist, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17089, 229, 3408-3423. * co-corresponding authors PMID: 33206370
5. Saintenac C., Cambon F., Aouini L., Verstappen E., Ghaffary S.M.T., Poucet T., Marande W., Berges H., Xu, S., Jaouannet M., Favery B., Alassimone J., Sanchez-Vallet A., Faris J., Kema G., Robert O. and Langin T. (2021) A wheat cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase confers broad-spectrum resistance against Septoria tritici blotch. Nature Communication, 12, 433. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20685-0. PMID 33469010
6. Truong, N-M., Chen, Y.P., Mejias, J., Soulé, S., Mulet, K., Jaouannet, M., Jaubert-Possamai, S., Sawa, S., Abad, P., Favery, B.* and Quentin, M.* (2021) The Meloidogyne incognita nuclear effector MiEFF1 interacts with Arabidopsis cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases to promote parasitism. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12:641480. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.641480. * co-corresponding authors. PMID 33897729
7. Zhao J., Sun, Q., Quentin, M., Ling, J., Abad, P., Zhang, X., Li, Y., Yang, Y., Favery, B.^*, Mao, Z*., Xie, B.A* (2021) A Meloidogyne incognita C-type lectin effector targets plant catalases to promote parasitism. New Phytologist, 232: 2124–2137. https://doi.org/10.1111/NPH.17690, * co-corresponding authors.
8. Sawa, S., Sato, M. H., Favery, B. (2020). Editorial: Developmental Modification under Biotic Interactions in Plants. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, Article 619804. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.619804.
9. Frei dit Frey, N, Favery, B. (2020). Plant-parasitic nematode secreted peptides hijack a plant secretory pathway. New Phytologist, doi.org/10.1111/nph.16842, in press. PMID: 32860721.
10. Favery, B., Dubreuil, G., Chen M.-S., Giron, D., Abad, P. (2020). Gall-Inducing Parasites: Convergent and Conserved Strategies of Plant Manipulation by Insects and Nematodes. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 58, 1-22. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-phyto-010820-012722. PMID: 32853101.
11. Zhao J., Mejias, J., Quentin, M., Chen, Y., de Almeida-Engler, J., Mao, Q., Sun, Q., Liu, Q., Xie, B., Abad, P., Favery B*. Jian, H.* (2020). The root-knot nematode MiPDI1 effector targets a stress-associated protein SAP to establish disease in Solanaceae and Arabidopsis. New Phytologist, doi.org/10.1111/nph.16745, in press. PMID: 32542658..* co-corresponding authors
12. Oota M., Tsai A.Y-L, Aoki D., Matsushita Y., Toyoda, S., Fukushima K., Saeki K., Toda K., Perfus-Barbeoch L., Favery B., Ishikawa H. and Sawa S. (2020) Identification of naturally-occurring polyamines as nematode Meloidogyne incognita attractants. Molecular Plant, pii: S1674-2052(19)30407-1. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2019.12.010. PMID 31891776.
13. Jaubert-Possamai S., Noureddine Y., Favery B. (2019). MicroRNAs, new players in the plant-nematode interaction. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10: 1180. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01180. PMID: 31681347.
14. Mejias J., Truong N. M., Abad P., Favery B., Quentin, M. (2019). Plant proteins and processes targeted by parasitic nematodes effectors. Frontiers in Plant Science. 10, 970. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00970. PMID: 31417587.
15. Zhao J., Li L., Liu Q., Liu P., Li S., Yang D., Chen Y., Favery B., Abad, P., Jian, H. (2019) A MIF like effector of Meloidogyne incognita suppresses plant immunity and assists parasitism by interacting with annexins. J. Exp. Bot. 70(20):5943-5958. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erz348. PMID: 31365744.
16. Marmonier A., Perfus-Barbeoch L., Rancurel C., Boissinot S., Favery B., Demangeat G. and Brault V. (2019) In vitro acquisition of specific small interfering RNAs inhibited inhibits the expression of some target genes in the plant ectoparasite Xiphinema index. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 3;20(13). pii: E3266. doi:%2010.3390/ijms20133266. PMID: 31277202.
17. Tsai A.Y-L, Higaki T., Nguyen, C-N., Perfus-Barbeoch L., Favery B., Sawa S. (2019) Regulation of Root-Knot Nematode Behavior by Seed Coat Mucilage-Derived Attractants. Molecular Plant, 12(1):99-112. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2018.11.008. PMID: 30503864
18. Médina C., da Rocha M., Magliano, M., Raptopoulo, A., Marteu, N., Lebrigand, K., Abad, P., Favery, B., Jaubert-Possamai, S. (2018) Characterization of siRNAs clusters in Arabidopsis thaliana galls induced by the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. BMC Genomics, 19:943 ; doi.org/10.1186/s12864-018-5296-3.
19. Nguyen, C-N., Perfus-Barbeoch-Zurletto, L., Quentin, M., Zhao, J., Magliano, M., Marteu, N., Da Rocha, M., Nottet, N., Abad, P. & Favery, B. (2018) A root-knot nematode small glycine and cysteine-rich secreted effector, MiSGCR1, is involved in plant parasitism. New Phytologist 217: 687-699. PMID: 29034957, doi.org/10.1111/nph.14837
20. Allasia, V., Industri, B., Ponchet, M., Quentin, M., Favery, B.* and Keller, H.* (2018) Quantification of salicylic acid (SA) and SA-glucosides in Arabidopsis thaliana. Bio-protocol 8(10): e2844. doi: 2010.21769/BioProtoc.2844. * co-corresponding authors.
21. Jaouannet, M., Nguyen, C-N., Quentin, M., Jaubert-Possamai, S., Rosso, M.-N. and Favery, B. (2018). In situ Hybridization (ISH) in preparasitic and parasitic stages of the plant-parasitic nematodes Meloidogyne spp. Bio-protocol 8(6): e2766. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2766.
22. Medina, C., Da Rocha, M., Magliano, M., Raptopoulo, A., Revel, B., Marteu, N., Magnone, V., Cabrera, J., Barcala, M., Pereira da Silva, A., Escobar, C., Abad, P., Favery, B., Jaubert-Possamai, S. (2017). Characterisation of microRNAs from Arabidopsis galls highlights a role for miR159 in the plant response to the root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne incognita. New Phytologist 216: 882–896. doi: 10.1111/nph.14717 PMID: 28906559

Add-on value/Technology transfer/Patents

• Quentin, M., Mejias, J., Truong, N.M., Abad, P., Favery, B. and Bonnet, G.. (2020). SYNGENTA, INRAE, Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS patent. “PLANTS WITH IMPROVED NEMATODE RESISTANCE”. EU EP20167882.8. Internationale extention in 2021
• WO2015/033328A1. Danchin, E., Abad, P., Perfus Barbeoch, L., Favery, B. (2015).”Method for reducing the plant parasitic nematode infestation level in a plant“; based on the European Patent EP20130306233. Applicant : Genoplante – Valor.
• WO2012/017067. Rodiuc N, Marco Y, Favery B, Keller H (2012). “Plants resistant to pathogens and methods for production thereof (Phytosulfokines and their receptor as novel breeding targets for plant resistance to diverse pests)”; based on the European Patent EP10305870 and patent N° PCT/EP2011. Applicant : Genoplante – Valor.
• WO2008/139334. Favery et al (2007/2008) Brevet déposé par Génoplante Valor “Method for increasing the resistance of a plant to endoparasitic nematode” “; based on the European Patent EP07290610.0. Applicant : Genoplante – Valor.
• WO2005/063989 Favery, B, Abad P. “Promoter nucleotidic sequences inducible by infection by pathogens”. Applicant : Genoplante – Valor.
• French patent 237155/D.17538/FFP. Abad P., Favery, B. (1998). Applicant : INRA (N°9807379) 11/06/ 1998  "Gènes de réponse aux nématodes".