Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : HARVEST (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Leiden University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499950.0 €

Plant foods comprise the majority of most human diets, yet the potential importance of these foods in human evolution is often overlooked. Using a behavioral ecology framework, the HARVEST project explores fundamental questions: Why did hominins choose to eat certain plants? What were their foraging goals? We will focus on two objectives: 1) Reconstructing the diets of fossil hominins and 2) Exploring the costs and benefits of plant foods. To understand the factors driving food choice by ancient hominins, we must know what they ate. Analyses of plant remains, proteins, DNA and other residues preserved in dental calculus are cutting-edge methods for reconstructing diets, and provide information about food, processing techniques, and oral microbiota. With a sequential sampling approach, we will combine these analyses to identify foods consumed by hominin groups for which plants are thought to be of great importance. The decision to consume a particular plant depends on its inherent properties (nutrients and antifeedants) and on the biological and technological abilities of the consumer, so that each potential food has a different cost and benefit. We will study the variation in plant properties among microhabitats in African environments similar to those used by hominins, to better model their food choices. Separately, our study of the food choices among living African foraging and farming groups will reveal if plants are chosen for calories, micronutrients or cultural preferences, while analysis of their gut microbiota and studies of their food processing behaviors will indicate how they acquire nutrients from these foods. Finally, we will assess how the costs of fire might influence food processing choices. Results from these studies will help fill important lacunae in our understanding of hominin diets, broaden our knowledge of hominin behaviors in a variety of environments, and help generate hypotheses about the relationships between diet and human evolution.

Mots-clés : archaeobotany,gut microbiota,fire,optimal foraging theory
Projet ERC : RobustHormoneTrans (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Tel Aviv University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Plant growth and development is governed by finely tuned, highly regulated hormone gradients. Impressive progress has been made in understanding plant hormone signaling, but knowledge on the mechanisms underlying their precise localization at the tissue and subcellular levels is still very limited. We and others have recently identified the first bona fide GA transporters in plants as members of the NPF protein family. Proteins from the ABC family were shown to transport the CK, ABA, and auxin hormones. Although these studies suggested specialized functions for members of these large protein families, progress in understanding their level of specialization has been limited by the scarcity of loss-of-function phenotypes, masked by the highly redundant plant genome. The goal of this proposal is to reveal the robust and specialized function of the NPF and ABC plant hormone transporter families. The project places key technological challenges that require multi-disciplinary expertise to examine how plants balance redundancy and specialization to tightly regulate hormone localization. Broad and targeted transportome screens using multi-targeted artificial miRNAs and CRISPR technology in Arabidopsis and tomato, respectively, are designed to unveil novel plant hormone transporters, with an emphasis on subcellular localized transporters and the missing GA exporters. Specialization and robustness of candidate transporters will be evaluated by integrating in vitro transport assays with in vivo growth and development experiments. I believe that the proposed "redundant-free" populations will lead to new paradigms in plant genetics and would explain how gene families have developed robustness together with unique and diverse specialization. Importantly, our combined genetic and organelle-specific hormone profiling approaches will establish fundamental new concepts regarding plant hormone localization, activity, and specificity at the subcellular level.

Mots-clés : plant hormone transport,plant development,plant genetics
Projet ERC : VOCO (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Freiburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1895245.0 €

Plant metabolic processes exert a large influence on global climate and air quality through the emission of the greenhouse gas CO2 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Despite the enormous importance, processes controlling plant carbon allocation into primary and secondary metabolism, such as respiratory CO2 emission and VOC synthesis, remain unclear. This project (VOCO2) develops a novel technological and theoretical basis to couple CO2 fluxes with VOC emissions and establish a mechanistic link between primary and secondary carbon metabolism. This radically new approach uses stable isotope fractionation of central metabolites (glucose, pyruvate) to trace carbon partitioning at metabolic branching points. A unique combination of cutting-edge technology (δ13CO2 laser spectroscopy, high sensitivity PTR-TOF-MS and isotope NMR spectroscopy) will allow an unprecedented assessment of carbon partitioning, bridging scales from sub-molecular to whole-plant and ecosystem processes in an interdisciplinary approach. Innovative positional 13C-labelling will break new ground quantifying real-time sub-molecular carbon investment into VOCs and CO2, enabling mechanistic descriptions of the underlying biochemical pathways coupling anabolic and catabolic processes, particularly the long overlooked link between secondary compound synthesis and CO2 emission in the light. This approach will permit the development of a novel mechanistic leaf model and its integration into a state-of-the-art ecosystem flux model. VOCO2 will set a new dimension with a world-wide first ecosystem positional labelling experiment in the unique Biosphere 2 enclosure (Arizona, US). Jointly with the novel process-based ecosystem model, VOCO2 will open new frontiers for assessing biogenic emissions of greenhouse gases at the ecosystem scale. This will deliver important information for global change related aspects, as these greenhouse gases can impact atmospheric chemistry and enhance global warming.

Mots-clés : plant respiration,biochemical pathways,plant primary and secondary metabolism,stable isotopes,volatile organic compounds,ecosystem carbon fluxes,carbon allocation,biogenic voc emission
Projet ERC : I-Wood (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Italian Institute of Technology — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Plants are connected to each other by an underground network of fungi that provide them with nutrients, help share resources, and extend their perception abilities. This mycorrhizal network, known as the Wood Wide Web, plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy natural ecosystems, and in limiting the global warming. Thus, it must be preserved in order to mitigate the speeding up of the carbon cycle and its effects on climate change. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can offer concrete solutions for a deeper analysis of natural processes at the basis of this global change and for developing sustainable technologies. Based on that, I-Wood proposes a new paradigm of virtual and physical robotic networks inspired by the belowground fungus-mediated inter-plant communication and by the associated collective behaviours. Specifically, I-Wood will study, extract and formalize the rules of plant-fungus interaction mechanisms to develop: a plant-inspired perceptron-like model; and a new generation of plant-inspired robots able to explore soil using their roots with growing, ageing, branching, and elongating abilities in response to their network-augmented perception and implementing plant-inspired collective behaviours. By imitating plants, these distributed intelligent systems will co-develop morphology and behaviour in a dynamic environment. Impact and feasibility of the proposed approach will be tested in a mixed social network, scale-down in a confined environment, where robots will interact with real plants to facilitate the development of mycorrhizal networks. Grounded on a strong multi-disciplinary approach, I-Wood will pave the way for new paradigms in robotics and embodied AI, based on solutions that overcome the current animal-based or brain-based model, novel approaches for the use of robotics in biology and for new scientific knowledge on plants community with a major significance for biodiversity and climate protection.
Projet ERC : CHEMCOMRHIZO (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2420490.18 €

Plants secrete metabolites to communicate with other organisms in their rhizosphere. An exciting example of rhizosphere signalling molecules are the strigolactones. These are used by the friends of plants, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, for host detection but also by their enemies, root parasitic plants. Furthermore, they have an endogenous signalling function, as a plant hormone that regulates shoot branching and root architecture. I postulate that this dual positive and negative signalling role of the strigolactones is the result of a paradigm: enemies of plants recruit molecules that are essential to the plant as cues. This paradigm has two important implications: 1) other plant-produced signalling molecules known to be abused by plant enemies likely have another, beneficial essential function in plants and 2) the involvement of multiple, positive and negative, biological functions exerts a selective pressure on these signalling molecules that results in the evolution of diversity in structure and biological specificity. In the project proposed here I will address implication 1) using an innovative approach in a new area by setting out to discover a new signalling role for plant parasitic cyst nematode hatching stimulants and I will investigate implication 2) by studying how biological specificity in strigolactones and hatching stimulants is mediated by the creation of structural diversity and the concomitant changes in perception, in parasitic plants and nematodes. This work will shed light on the significance of structural diversity in signalling molecules and the co-evolution of perception and may result in the discovery of a new class of signalling molecules in plants. It will also provide the fundamental knowledge enabling biotechnological and agronomical applications to optimise colonisation by AM fungi and plant development, and control parasitation by root parasitic plants and cyst nematodes.

Mots-clés : parasitic plants,plant cyst nematodes,rhizosphere communication,plant hormones
Projet ERC : CHEMCOMRHIZO (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Wageningen University & Research — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : WUR
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 78183.68 €

Plants secrete metabolites to communicate with other organisms in their rhizosphere. An exciting example of rhizosphere signalling molecules are the strigolactones. These are used by the friends of plants, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, for host detection but also by their enemies, root parasitic plants. Furthermore, they have an endogenous signalling function, as a plant hormone that regulates shoot branching and root architecture. I postulate that this dual positive and negative signalling role of the strigolactones is the result of a paradigm: enemies of plants recruit molecules that are essential to the plant as cues. This paradigm has two important implications: 1) other plant-produced signalling molecules known to be abused by plant enemies likely have another, beneficial essential function in plants and 2) the involvement of multiple, positive and negative, biological functions exerts a selective pressure on these signalling molecules that results in the evolution of diversity in structure and biological specificity. In the project proposed here I will address implication 1) using an innovative approach in a new area by setting out to discover a new signalling role for plant parasitic cyst nematode hatching stimulants and I will investigate implication 2) by studying how biological specificity in strigolactones and hatching stimulants is mediated by the creation of structural diversity and the concomitant changes in perception, in parasitic plants and nematodes. This work will shed light on the significance of structural diversity in signalling molecules and the co-evolution of perception and may result in the discovery of a new class of signalling molecules in plants. It will also provide the fundamental knowledge enabling biotechnological and agronomical applications to optimise colonisation by AM fungi and plant development, and control parasitation by root parasitic plants and cyst nematodes.

Mots-clés : parasitic plants,plant cyst nematodes,rhizosphere communication,plant hormones
Projet ERC : AGRISCENTS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Neuchâtel — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498086.0 €

Plants typically release large quantities of volatiles in response to attack by herbivores or pathogens. I may claim to have contributed to various breakthroughs in this research field, including the discovery that the volatile blends induced by different attackers are astonishingly specific, resulting in characteristic, readily distinguishable odour blends. Using maize as our model plant, I wish to take several leaps forward in our understanding of this signal specificity and use this knowledge to develop sensors for the real-time detection of crop pests and diseases. For this, three interconnected work-packages will aim to: • Develop chemical analytical techniques and statistical models to decipher the odorous vocabulary of plants, and to create a complete inventory of “odour-prints” for a wide range of herbivore-plant and pathogen-plant combinations, including simultaneous infestations. • Develop and optimize nano-mechanical sensors for the detection of specific plant volatile mixtures. For this, we will initially adapt a prototype sensor that has been successfully developed for the detection of cancer-related volatiles in human breath. • Genetically manipulate maize plants to release a unique blend of root-produced volatiles upon herbivory. For this, we will engineer gene cassettes that combine recently identified P450 (CYP) genes from poplar with inducible, root-specific promoters from maize. This will result in maize plants that, in response to pest attack, release easy-to-detect aldoximes and nitriles from their roots. In short, by investigating and manipulating the specificity of inducible odour blends we will generate the necessary knowhow to develop a novel odour-detection device. The envisioned sensor technology will permit real-time monitoring of the pests and enable farmers to apply crop protection treatments at the right time and in the right place.

Mots-clés : pest monitoring in agriculture,specificity in herbivore induced volatile plant signals,sentinel,plants,piezoresistive membrane sensors
Projet ERC : MedPlant (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : UK Research and Innovation — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UKRI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 100000.0 €

Plants, as sessile organisms, synthesize complex molecules for defense and signaling. Humans have long exploited the potent medicinal activities of these plant natural products: artemisinin from sweet wormwood is used to cure malaria, vincristine from Madagascar periwinkle is used to treat cancer, and morphine from poppy alleviates pain. Synthetic biology approaches are being used with increasing success to overproduce these expensive molecules, which are often present at low levels in the plant. However, to pursue such approaches effectively, we must fully understand the biosynthetic pathways that generate these molecules. This pathway discovery process has been a major bottleneck in harnessing the chemical power of plants. Recent advances in sequencing, bioinformatics and metabolomics have provided the tools to address plant natural product metabolism on an unprecedented scale: we can now use inexpensive RNA-seq data, in combination with bioinformatic analyses and metabolomic data, for rapid identification of pathway-specific biosynthetic gene candidates. Here we use these advances, along with our expertise in chemistry, to unlock the extraordinary chemical diversity that is found within the ca. 3000 members of the plant-derived monoterpene indole alkaloid metabolites. By strategically selecting a group of molecules that are chemically diverse, yet biosynthetically and evolutionarily related, the gene discovery process will be dramatically accelerated (Objective 1). Moreover, using this strategy, we will uncover new biochemical mechanisms by which chemical diversity is generated in plants (Objective 2). Understanding these mechanisms will allow us to generate “unnatural” chemical diversity in the laboratory by creating production platforms that produce new-to-nature molecules that may potentially have important applications (Objective 3).

Mots-clés : natural product,specialized metabolism,biosynthesis,alkaloid
Projet ERC : SHRED (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Institut de physique du globe — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IPG de Paris
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1250000.0 €

Plate tectonics drives the formation and destruction of crust and introduces surface material into the deep Earth, while mantle convection mixes materials back together, erasing their diversity. Geochemical heterogeneities in modern volcanics indicate the survival of Hadean (≈ 4.5 Ga) remnants, and their mare existence raises first-order questions: What is the nature of the material carrying the odd geochemical signatures? How can Hadean material survive in an actively convecting mantle? What are the physical properties of material that can be preserved for billions of years, and yet that can be entrained in mantle plumes? Can Hadean remnants be stored in the structures seismically imaged in the lowermost mantle? Answering these questions is the challenging aim of SHRED. I will define the location, dimensions, structure, physical nature and composition of the ‘storage site’ of old material and I will constrain the conditions necessary for the material to be sampled in hotspots. To reach the goal, I will assemble a unique group of scientists that will combine the most innovative geochemical tools with the latest physical modeling of inner Earth. I will characterize the isotopic diversity of modern intraplate volcanism and develop new geochemical tools to determine the age and size of heterogeneities in mantle plumes. These observations represent key constraints for geophysical models that will unravel, in a fluid-dynamically consistent framework, the evolution of mantle heterogeneities. Innovative simulations with particle tracing will determine the geographical origin of upwelling material and evaluate its relationship to deep seismic structures. Simulations focussed on mantle mixing will explore the physical conditions required for the survival of heterogeneities on billion-year-time-scales. This unique combination of expertise will provide answers to decades-old questions raised independently in mantle geochemistry and mantle geophysics.

Mots-clés : deep mantle,plume,early earth
Projet ERC : SHRED (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2218768.0 €

Plate tectonics drives the formation and destruction of crust and introduces surface material into the deep Earth, while mantle convection mixes materials back together, erasing their diversity. Geochemical heterogeneities in modern volcanics indicate the survival of Hadean (≈ 4.5 Ga) remnants, and their mare existence raises first-order questions: What is the nature of the material carrying the odd geochemical signatures? How can Hadean material survive in an actively convecting mantle? What are the physical properties of material that can be preserved for billions of years, and yet that can be entrained in mantle plumes? Can Hadean remnants be stored in the structures seismically imaged in the lowermost mantle? Answering these questions is the challenging aim of SHRED. I will define the location, dimensions, structure, physical nature and composition of the ‘storage site’ of old material and I will constrain the conditions necessary for the material to be sampled in hotspots. To reach the goal, I will assemble a unique group of scientists that will combine the most innovative geochemical tools with the latest physical modeling of inner Earth. I will characterize the isotopic diversity of modern intraplate volcanism and develop new geochemical tools to determine the age and size of heterogeneities in mantle plumes. These observations represent key constraints for geophysical models that will unravel, in a fluid-dynamically consistent framework, the evolution of mantle heterogeneities. Innovative simulations with particle tracing will determine the geographical origin of upwelling material and evaluate its relationship to deep seismic structures. Simulations focussed on mantle mixing will explore the physical conditions required for the survival of heterogeneities on billion-year-time-scales. This unique combination of expertise will provide answers to decades-old questions raised independently in mantle geochemistry and mantle geophysics.

Mots-clés : deep mantle,plume,early earth