Know more

Thesis started november 1^st, 2016, defended in december 2019 20^th
Fund: ARED – INRA (MP MEM)
Direction: Christophe Mougel et Anne-Marie Cortesero

--------------------------------------------

Abstract:

Microorganisms have a strong influence on plant-insect interactions. We have studied the interaction between oilseed rape (Brassica napus), the cabbage root fly (Delia radicum) and their associated microbial communities. Soil microbial diversity was manipulated with the dilution to extinction approach to assess its effect on plant chemistry and insect life history traits. Diversity variation influenced the fly emergence rate and oviposition, but not plant chemistry. Conversely, herbivory by D. radicum strongly modified root chemistry and both root and rhizosphere microbial communities. We proposed a scenario that in the presence of herbivory, plants would produce defensive compounds but also would recruit, with attractive chemical compounds, soil microorganisms that may maintain plant defenses. Bacterial communities of adult flies, free of their facultative symbiont Wolbachia, were studied using an antibiotic. We showed that tetracycline decreased fly bacterial diversity, without making them sterile, modified community composition, and that effects lasted over several generations. Lastly, studying bacterial transmission in D. radicum showed two species shared between females and eggs, and two others between larvae and both roots and rhizosphere. This study showed that having a better understanding of plant-insect interactions and how strongly microorganisms can influence their own host or other interacting organisms is a crucial step that could promote microbial applications in a context of insect biological control.

Poster pdf