{"id":10523,"date":"2020-07-16T12:31:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T12:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycor.iam.inrae.fr\/IAM\/?page_id=10523"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:55:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:55:41","slug":"francis-martin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mycor.iam.inrae.fr\/IAM\/?page_id=10523","title":{"rendered":"Francis M. Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Francis_010116\"<\/p>\n

Bio:<\/strong>\u00a0I am a Research Director Emeritus at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) in Nancy, France. I received a bachelor’s degree from the Plant Biology Department of the University Henri Poincar\u00e9-Nancy (Lorraine) in 1979, a Ph.D. from this University in 1982 and a Science Doctorat from Paris XI-Orsay University in 1986. I joined the INRA Forestry Center in 1981 where I built up a research group on the physiology and molecular biology of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis.<\/p>\n

I spent sabbatical leaves at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) (1986-1987), CSIRO, Perth, WA (1990) and USDA Atlantic Research Center, Wyndmoor, PA (1997). Since 2018, I have also been appointed Chief Scientist at the Beijing Forestry University, China (until 2021) and Visiting Professor at both the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources in \u00a0Lanzhou, (Gansu) and Chinese Academy of Forestry Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Hangzhou, China.<\/p>\n

I headed the\u00a0Tree-Microbes Interactions <\/em>Department from 2001 to 2008 and the Cluster of Excellence ARBRE (Advanced Research on the Biology of Tree Biology and Forest Ecosystems)<\/a>\u00a0from 2011 to 2021. We are implementing a wide range of disciplines \u2013 from genomics to functional ecology \u2013 to understand, monitor and predict community structures, dynamics and processes in forest ecosystems.<\/p>\n

In 2012, I was awarded the INRA Laurel Wreath for Excellence<\/a> for my work on tree-microbe interactions and fungal genomics. In 2016, I was awarded the Research Prize by the popular science magazine La Recherche. In 2021, I received the\u00a0prestigious \u201cAngiola Gili e Cataldo Agostinelli\u201d International Prize for Biological or Medical Sciences 2020 by the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. I have been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2015.<\/p>\n

My\u00a0research focuses on understanding how fungi drive forest ecosystems through their roles in important soil and biological processes including carbon and nutrient turnover, as well as mutualistic symbioses. Much of this research has concentrated on ectomycorrhizal fungi, which form mutualistic symbiotic associations with the roots of forest trees, and provide phosphate and nitrogen in exchange for sugars. I explore these plant-microbe interactions, in part, by identifying the communication genes (e.g., those coding for effector proteins) and the regulatory factors that drive the mycorrhizal symbiosis development.<\/p>\n

I am\u00a0now developing\u00a0large-scale comparative genomics\u00a0of symbiotic, saprotrophic and\u00a0pathogenic fungi (in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute<\/a> (JGI) to decipher the evolution of the symbiosis lifestyle and ligno-cellulose decay apparatus.\u00a0I am\u00a0leading the Mycorrhizal Genomics Initiative<\/a> and the 1000 Fungal Genomes project aiming to decipher the mechanisms driving the evolution of Fungi. My\u00a0group is also embarked in challenging large-scale metagenomics and metatranscriptomics projects to explore the interactions of forest trees with communities of soil fungi impacting carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/strong><\/p>\n