Know more

My research activities, at the interface between ecophysiology, phenomenology and crop modeling, aim at improving varieties in the context of climate change and new agricultural practices. Today, I focus mainly on the analysis of genetic diversity of leaf development and transpiration under environmental constraints such as high temperature and water deficit, and its impact on field yield. This defines the following three axes:
- Intra- and inter-specific diversity of temperature responses
- The hydraulic control of transpiration and leaf expansion in maize under water deficit and high evaporative demand.
- Interactions between nitrogen, high temperature and water deficit on growth and aerial development in wheat
I developed a conceptual framework to predict the impact of genetic diversity of adaptive traits under different environmental scenarios and cropping practices of today and tomorrow.
1) Develop process-scale models based on phenotyping and improve crop models.
2) Analyze the intra- and inter-species genetic diversity of model parameter values, as well as the constraints defining the phenotypic parameter space.
3) Determine the genetic architecture of the model parameters by quantitative genetics.
4) Predict the adaptive value of different combinations of traits (functional ideotypes) and multi-allelic combinations (genetic ideotypes) at large scale.

Key publications :

Parent, B., et al., . 2018. Maize yields over Europe may increase in spite of climate change, with an appropriate use of the genetic variability of flowering time. PNAS, 115: 10642-10647.

Lacube, S., Fournier, C., Palaffre, C., Millet, E. J., Tardieu, F., Parent, B. 2017.Distinct controls of leaf widening and elongation by light and evaporative demand in maize. Plant, Cell and Environment, 40 (9), 2017-2028. DOI : 10.1111/pce.13005

Parent B, Bonneau J, Maphosa L, Kovalchuk A, Langridge P, Fleury D. 2017. Quantifying Wheat Sensitivities to Environmental Constraints to Dissect Genotype x Environment Interactions in the Field. Plant Physiology, 174: 1669-1682.

Tardieu F, Parent B. 2017 Predictable 'meta-mechanisms' emerge from feedbacks between transpiration and plant growth and cannot be simply deduced from short-term mechanisms. Plant Cell and Environment 40: 846-857.

Parent, B., Vile, D., Violle, C., Tardieu, F. (2016). Towards parsimonious ecophysiological models that bridge ecology and agronomy. New Phytologist, 210 (2), 380-382.

Tardieu F, Simonneau T, Parent B. 2015. Modelling the coordination of the controls of stomatal aperture, transpiration, leaf growth, and abscisic acid: update and extension of the Tardieu-Davies model. Journal of Experimental Botany 66: 2227-2237.

Parent, B., Shahinnia, F., Maphosa, L., Berger, B., Rabie, H., Chalmers, K., Kovalchuk, A., Langridge, P., Fleury, D. (2015). Combining field performance with controlled environment plant imaging to identify the genetic control of growth and transpiration underlying yield response to water-deficit stress in wheat. Journal of Experimental Botany, 66 (18), 5481-5492.

Parent, B., Tardieu, F. 2014. Can current crop models be used in the phenotyping era for predicting the genetic variability of yield of plants subjected to drought or high temperature?. Journal of Experimental Botany, 65 (21), 6179-6189.

Parent, B., Tardieu, F. (2012). Temperature responses of developmental processes have not been affected by breeding in different ecological areas for 17 crop species. New Phytologist, 194 (3), 760-774.

Parent, B., Hachez, C., Redondo, E., Simonneau, T., Chaumont, F., Tardieu, F. 2009. Drought and Abscisic Acid Effects on Aquaporin Content Translate into Changes in Hydraulic Conductivity and Leaf Growth Rate: A Trans-Scale Approach. Plant Physiology, 149 (4), 2000-2012.