QuaRVeg

In the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and the reduction in the use of synthetic pesticides, vegetable production systems are facing major environmental, economic, and health challenges. Improving food quality in a sustainable manner while enhancing crop resilience has become a key challenge for both agriculture and research.

The QuaRVeg team – Quality and Resistance to Bioaggressors in Vegetable Crops – is part of this dynamic, aiming to optimize the multi-performance of crops within agroecological systems.

The main objective is to understand the mechanisms underlying plant responses to combined biotic and abiotic stresses in carrot. More broadly, the research seeks to decipher the determinants of genotype × environment × cropping practices (G×E×P) interactions, in relation to the nutritional and organoleptic quality of products, as well as their resistance to bioaggressors, particularly through the study of specialized metabolites.

The team’s work is based on recognized expertise in carrot, the second most consumed vegetable in France and a crop of high nutritional interest. The research focuses in particular on two key traits: root quality and resistance to Alternaria dauci, the causal agent of the most damaging foliar disease affecting carrot. In close collaboration with stakeholders from the sector, QuaRVeg manages and maintains the genetic diversity of the Biological Resource Center (BRC) “Carrot and Other Apiaceae”.

This research is structured around three complementary axes, with the aim of identifying sustainable levers to simultaneously improve product quality and resistance to bioaggressors:

1. Genetic and ecophysiological bases of metabolite contents involved in quality and resistance,
2. Complementarity between constitutive and induced resistance (biocontrol) and their impacts on quality,
3. Management of genetic diversity as a lever to study G×E×P interactions.