Research group Natural Substances and Chemical Interactions

Welcome

Natural substances play major roles as molecule signals as well as molecules involved in defence mechanisms during intra- and interspecific interactions. Chemical interactions are of great interest in different fundamental and applied fields, i.e., chemical ecology, evolution, functional ecology, ecosystem processes, biodiversity protection.
The members of the research group Natural Substances and Chemical Interactions are associated with various programmes based on i) knowledge of plant, fungi kingdoms (morphological, microscopic and environmental characters, biological activities, toxicity) and bacteria (biosynthetic pathways), ii) uses of histochemical (microscopy, microspectrofluorimetry…) and analytical (thin layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography…) tools to investigate the natural substances (volatile organic compounds, polyphenols…) involved in chemical interactions. Activities of "eco-inspired" Green Chemistry and bioorganic chemistry (bacterial defense strategies, structural elucidation and total synthesis of new messengers) are also developed in the group.

Know-how of Research team: Natural Substances and Chemical Interactions
Botany and Mycology (Françoise Fons, Laurence Mondolot, Sylvie Rapior)
•    Identification of plants and higher fungi using morphological, microscopic and environmental characters.
•    Identification of edible and toxic morphological related mushroom species in order to prevent poisonings.
Histology,  histochemistry and microspectrofluorometry (Philippe La Fisca, Laurence Mondolot)
•    Anatomical cross-sections from various plant materials (Histology).
•    Localisation and identification, in each plant tissue, of the major chemical classes for the bioproducted natural substances (Histochemistry).
•    UV spectra of the chemical mediators (Microspectrofluorometry).
Phytochemistry (Françoise Fons, Annick Gargadennec, Sylvie Rapior)
•    Extraction process, purification of extracts and identification of primary and secondary metabolites by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), Optimum Performance Laminar Chromatography (OPLC), Column Chromatography (CC) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
•    Chemical screening of plant and mushroom materials.
On the development of new activities at the interface of Chemistry and Ecology (Claude Grison)

• The valorization of phytoremediation processes through the development of innovative green chemistry.    
•The molecular approach of adaptive dynamics of microbial metabolism.
• Identification and total synthesis of pheromones.

Keywords : Bioorganic Synthesis, Green Chemistry, Chemical Ecology
Natural Substances - Plants and stress – Higher fungi - Histochemistry - Microspectrofluorometry – Phytochemistry - Chromatography – Organic synthesis – Green Chemistry – Chemical Ecology - Phytoextraction