Our goal is to design methods for the durable management of plant resistance to diseases, suitable for implementation in integrated crop protection strategies. These methods are based on in-depth understanding of resistance as selective factors acting on pathogen populations, as well as on the analysis of adaptive responses of pathogen populations to resistance deployment. We are interested in both total and partial resistances, used alone or associated within a single cultivar.

Our activities are organised along three main thematic areas:

• to identify and characterise new resistances in cultivated plants and/or their wild relatives, as well as pathogenicity factors in the target pathogens ;
• to analyse adaptative responses in pathogen populations to selection exerted by host resistance;
• to design and assess promising resistance deployment strategies targeting durability.
  

We work on four host/pathogen systems, which are all involved in major agricultural problems:
- Potato/ Phytophthora infestans ;
- Oilseed rape/ Leptosphaeria maculans;
- Potato/ Erwinia carotovora ;
- Potato/ Streptomyces spp.

Because of the taxonomic diversity of the pathogens considered, their genetic polymorphism, their varied infectious processes and modes of epidemic development, but also because of the nature and performance of resistances available in the host plants to control them, these pathosystems represent a fair sample of possible situations in which resistance management strategies could be designed. Our team has extensive and well-recognised experience with these pathosystems, and builds on this to conduct its research activities and engage in collaborative work.