Who we are

The BBV laboratory (EA2106 Biomolécules et Biotechnologies Végétales) from the University of Tours studies plant specialized metabolisms by combining both metabolomics and transcriptomics approaches.

The alkaloid metabolism group research, led by Dr Vincent Courdavault and more specifically involved in MIACYC project, relies on the elucidation of alkaloid biosynthesis through gene discovery and combinatorial synthesis of alkaloids by gene transfer in heterologous organisms. Besides unraveling biosynthetic pathways, our goal is to provide alternative supply of plant natural products by creating microbiological cell factories.

The work developed by the BioCIS (UMR CNRS 8076, Biomolécules : Conception, Isolement,Synthèse) laboratory and in particular the group of "Chimie des substances naturelles" from Université Paris-Saclay is situated in the field of biologically active natural substances, mainly referred to anticancer or antiparasitic compounds and their analogues.

The isolation of new natural products, mainly of plant origin, led to a better understanding of the biochemical families and genera studied, for proposing biogenetic consistent patterns and establishing chemotaxonomical relationships useful for the discovery of new biologically active substances. Synthetic or semisynthetic studies allowed, in addition to the development of new methods, to access many molecules analogues of active natural products and to develop relationships between the structure of these products and their activity. Studies are associated with the use of new techniques of structural analysis and separation of these natural or synthetic products.

Meet the team

scientific coordinator

   - Project : project management and genetic characterization of the MIA biosynthtetic pathway

Associate professor- Université Paris Saclay- BioCIS

   -  Project :  Deep spatially resolved metabolomic characterization of MIA
   -  Project description : I will be involved in the deep metabolomic exploration of the three plants that have been selected for the MIACYC project. To perform this task, an unsupervised integrated diversity mining pipeline leveraging MS/MS molecular networking and machine learning will be developed.

Associate professor - Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : WP4 leader, gene candidates validation and yeast bioengineering
   - Project description : Candidate genes provided by transcriptomic analysis will be functionally validated by transient heterologous expression in yeast and C. roseus. Active enzymes will be further combined into yeast to reconstruct partial or full biosynthetic pathways.

Associate professor - Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Genetic characterization of the MIA biosynthetic pathways, Validation of biosynthetic genes and bioengineering
   - Project description : We work on the elucidation of the missing steps of the MIA biosynthetic pathway in medicinal plants. Plant gene sequences generated are used to identify gene candidates, in agreement with the expected biosynthetic pathway, and gene candidates are validated in yeast. Transcriptomics, metabolomics, and bioengineering approaches are developed and used to fulfill this purpose.

Associate professor - Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Validation of MIA biosynthetic genes and bioengineering
   - Project description : I will work on the elucidation of the missing steps of the MIA biosynthetic pathway in medicinal plants, using heterologous expression of candidate proteins in microbial cells.

Associate professor - Université Paris Saclay- BioCIS

   - Project : Deep spatially resolved metabolomic characterization of the three plant models.

Associate professor - Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Phytochemical chemistry, Metabolomics, Plant Natural Products, UPLC-MSMS
   - Project description : We are developing the metabolic profiling  of the selected plant species and we evaluate the efficiency of engineered yeasts to produce plant natural products.

Associate professor- Université Paris Saclay- BioCIS

   - Project : Deep-spatially resolved metabolomic characterization of the three plant models
   - Project description : my involvement in the MIACYC projet deals with the deep metabolomic annotation of the plant extracts, in a cell-type specific manner. As the sharp end of systems biology, these spatially-informed specialized metabolome data will guide the identification of the cell types of interest to further investigate the upstream cellular events. My contribution to MIACYC also includes the validation of the foreseen biochemical reactions based on in silico tools, and the structure elucidation of the anticipated new compounds.

Research Engineer assistant - Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Validation of biosynthetic genes and bioengineering
   - Project description : I will work on the validation of the candidate genes by expressing them in yeast and on the yeast culture and its improvement.

Associate Professor- Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Identification of missing steps of the MIA biosynthetic pathway in medicinal plants
   - Project description : I perform computantional analysis of the Next Generation Sequencing data and prioritization to finally isolate candidate genes. The candidate genes will be functionnaly validated in yeast and plant. 

  Associate professor- Université de Tours- BBV

   - Project : Genetic characterization of MIA biosynthetic pathways ; dissemination and data manager
   - Project description : I work on the elucidation of the missing steps of the MIA biosynthetic pathway in medicinal plants. We use Omics approach to identify gene candidates and multiple ways to validate genes including gene expression analysis, enzymatic assays and analysis. I also help bringing out he MIACYC project to the public and scientific community.

   - Project : Deep-spatially resolved metabolomic characterization of the three plant models
   - Project description : Our mission is to identify the cellular types involved in the production of MIA by MSI and to improve dereplication’s reliability by deep   annotation of three plant models
 

   - Project : Identification of missing enzyme steps in MIA pathways

   - Project description : I will try to find enzymes involved in carbon-nitrogn cyclisations of MIAS (e.g vincamine) inside different plants like Vinca, Rauwolfia... I will use molecular biology experiments as well as functionnal validation of genes candidtes to understants their biological roles. Combining different known P450s from different organisms, it could form non-natural MIAs with other pharmacological interests.

                               - Project : Identify molecular actors involved in C-N cyclizationinvolved in MIA biosynthesis
                               - Project description : I am working on the functionnal characterization of candidates genes from plant producing MIAs and identified though computional analyses. For    this purpose, I combine a molecular biology approach to clone these genes and genetic transformation to express them in heterologous sytem like yeat and the model plant  N. benthamiana. The herelogous expression of these candidate genes enables me to characterize their enzymatic functions using feeding assays.