Molecular Plant Biology

Diatoms

Diatoms are of extreme importance for global primary productivity and biogeochemical cycling of silicon. Bowler and Lopez have established Phaeodactylum tricornutum as a model species for exploring the novel aspects of diatom biology and are focusing their efforts on understanding diatom responses to environmental stimuli such as light and biotic stress, and on understanding silica-based nanopatterning and morphogenesis. The laboratory has coordinated the whole genome sequencing of P. tricornutum (30 Mb) with the US Joint Genome Institute and with Genoscope, together with the generation of 130,000 ESTs and a Phaeodactylum microarray.

Plants

Our work on Arabidopsis focuses on genome dynamics. We are interested to understand how light signals affect chromatin structure and epigenetic phenomena. This research program is aimed to better understand the role of chromatin-based mechanisms associated to light perception and development. We notably use the CDD complex, containing several photomorphogenic factors and able to bind histones, as a tool to assess this question. A combination of biochemical, molecular and cytological approaches are used to characterize the Arabidopsis CDD complex, and in particular DDB1 and DET1 subunits, and the regulation of its interaction with chromatin at loci of light-regulated genes and UV-damaged DNA.