Evaluation of the effect of alternative treatments

GEVES contributes to the agro-ecological transition by providing its seed expertise to public and private partners working on the research and development of effective solutions for the bioprotection, disinfection, biostimulation or priming of seeds and seedlings.

Alternative treatments such as biocontrol and biostimulants are one of the levers to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and synthetic inputs and their environmental impact. Seeds, first step in the food production chain, are increasingly emerging as a potential vector of alternative products. Therefore, GEVES suppports public and private R&D stakeholders by providing them its expertise and methodological know-how about seeds and seedlings.

Activities

GEVES provides its methodological expertise to support private and public stakeholders involved in the research and development of alternative solutions to synthetic chemical inputs for the protection and biostimulation of seeds and seedlings.

GEVES works alongside national or international consortia and is :

Member of the French “Consortium public-privé Recherche-Developpement-Innovation sur le Biocontrôle” which supports development of biocontrol products
Associated member of the technological network RMT BESTIM on agro-ecological immunity
Partner and leader of research axes on alternative treatments in national and European projects: SUCSEED, ASCOLUP, ACTIFOL, QUALILEV, ASEEDS, …

Publications :

Bailly C., Bousquet A., Braun V., Buitink J., Desbois-Vimont C., Durand Tardif M., Fougereux J.A., Gaillard A., Gouleau A., Grappin P., Hily Y., Lejard F., Malausa T., Marchi M., Multeau C., Orgeur G., Piovan R., Poisson A.-S., Profizi C., Rajjou L., Reboud X., Szambien M., 2019. Towards seed protection using biocontrol strategies
Merieux N., Cordier P., Wagner M.-H., Ducournau S., Aligon S., Job D., Grappin P., Grappin E., 2021. ScreenSeed as a novel high throughput seed germination phenotyping method. Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 11 (1)

Expertise, technologies and equipment

Our know-how

Production of inoculum Artificial seed contamination Measure of pathogens viability Control and development of new pathotests (virus, bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, nematodes, aphids)	Automated seed germination monitoring Automated seedling growth monitoring Length, surface, biomass of aerial and/or root parts measurement Automated screening in 96-well microplates

Pathosystems

All the pathosystems proposed at GEVES are transposable to the study of alternative treatments.

pathosysteme

A few examples of controlled pathosystems:

Fusarium head blight of cereals (Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium culmorum, Michrodochium nivale, … )
Common bunt of wheat (Tilletia caries)
Rust of wheat (Puccinia striiformis, Puccinia triticina)
Downy mildew of sunflower (Plasmopara halstedii)
Club root of cabbage (Plasmodiophora brassicae)
Root rot and damping-off of beet seedlings (Aphanomyces cochlioides, Pythium sp)

Plant species

All the cultivated species examined at GEVES can be studied, in particular:

Cereals
Oil plants
Vegetables

Our teams and their equipments

Multidisciplinary teams of qualified experts

In physiology
In phytopathology and molecular biology
In image analysis

Adapted and equipped premises

1500 m2 of laboratories
74 climate chambers
200 m2 of greenhouse

Various phenotyping equipement

Germination benches
ElonCam
3D x-ray tomograph

Useful documents

- Biocontrol & Biostimulant Effectiveness & Phytotoxicity Studies
- Evaluation de l’effet de produits de biocontrôle
- Evaluation de l’effet de produits de biostimulation
- Efficacité de traitements en pathologie
For more information on conditions and rates: GEVES price list Section “Biostimulation – Biocontrol – Evaluation of treatments”