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• Mailing adress

42, rue Georges Morel
BP 60057
Building: A
Phone. : +33 (0)2 4122 56 46
Fax : +33 (0)2 4122 56 35
email :sabine.demotes-mainard@angers.inrae.fr

Skills and competences

Plant architecture strongly determines the interactions between the plants and their environment. Architectural plasticity allows the plants to acclimatize to their environment, but it will also modifies plant performance and the services they provides, because architecture has a strong impact on important biological processes. Thus, changes in branching can impact important performance criteria such as the yield of certain crops or the visual quality of ornamental plants. Likewise, differences in tree architecture, by modifying light interception and transpiration, will modulate the cooling services provided by trees in cities during periods of high temperatures.

I study how environmental factors, in interaction with the genotype, regulate aerial plant architecture, and how this architecture impacts plant ecosystem services. I approach this question at different scales. At the scale of the axis, I focus on the regulation of branching and bud outgrowth in response to the environment, especially light, from a phenotypic characterization to the understanding of the bud outgrowth regulatory network. At the scale of whole plants, I study the relationships between tree architecture and the cooling services they provide in an urban environment, as influenced by the genotype, the microclimatic conditions and the soil water availability. I conduct my research in collaborations with specialists of the other disciplines as investigating these questions involves interdisciplinary approaches.