Research projects

The project addresses the significant crop losses caused by pests and pathogens by investigating complex interactions between plants and other organisms in the agroecological environment. While the mechanisms of two-way interactions between plants and pathogens and between plants and pests have been studied in considerable detail, three-way interactions, despite their ecological importance, remain poorly understood at the molecular level.

In the project, we will investigate a three-way interaction system involving potato, its pathogen Potato virus Y (PVY), and its vector, the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae). We will investigate this system using high-throughput sequencing, complemented by statistical and network analyses for hypothesis generation, with a particular focus on the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). These key molecules involved in post-transcriptional regulation have not yet been comprehensively studied, particularly in the context of three-way interactions. The main objective is to identify and validate molecular interactions acting between organisms (across kingdoms), for example, plant-derived ncRNAs acting on targets in aphids and vice versa.

Our approach involves conducting a large-scale three-way interaction experiment and sampling potato leaves and aphids at key time points to obtain high-quality transcriptomic RNA expression data, including mRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and different fractions of small RNAs. We will perform differential expression analysis to precisely identify regulated genes, ncRNAs, and processes in both plants and aphids.

Furthermore, we will integrate the existing plant immune signalling network, based on prior knowledge, with an interspecies ncRNA-mRNA network constructed from experimental data obtained in the proposed project. Using innovative network analysis approaches, we will identify the most interesting predictions of ncRNA-target interactions between organisms and validate some of them using biochemical and genetic assays. In addition, we will investigate the contribution of these molecular interactions to the outcome of two-way or three-way interactions through experiments on potato and the aphid M. persicae.

The project will open a new perspective for understanding interactions between plants, plant viruses, and their aphid vectors and has clear potential for biotechnological applications in plant protection. We expect our findings to contribute to the development of new plant protection strategies and more sustainable agriculture.