My interest is focused on the role of glutamate receptors-like channels in plant adaptation to abiotic stress. GLRs are ion channels that participate in calcium and electrical signaling. The cellular mechanism involved are not clear, because we do not have a precise characterization of GLR molecular function. Indeed, although Arabidopsis has 20 GLRs, with different pore, gate and receptors, the molecular function of those is dizzy, and we just know GLRs are “calcium-permeable poorly specific and regulated by some amino acids”. One objective of my work is to understand the specific activity of those 20 GLRs: ionic selectivity, regulation and gating. The second objective is to understand the physiological role of GLR activity in plan cell physiology, and notably – but not exclusively – in signaling.

My group is tackling the issue of GLR physiological function at molecular, cellular and plant scales. We work with Arabidopsis and Solanum lycopersicum, of obvious agronomic interest. We also work on the simple moss Physcomitrium patens that allows to address specific theoretical question of the cellular function of GLRs, that the genetic and morphological characteristic of angiosperm do not. We recently introduced the model Sanionia uncinate, an extremophile moss from Antarctica.

We are specialist in electrophysiology (patch-clamp in protoplasts and mammalian cells, voltage clamp in xenopus oocytes). We complement those experiments with calcium and voltage imaging, plant physiology and molecular genetics.