Alexandre DESPARMET

Oxylipins induced by light in microphytobenthic biofilm

Microphytobenthic biofilms are the first stage of natural surfaces’ colonization and human marine infrastructures. The microorganisms of those biofilms (microalgae, bacteria, fungi, etc.) are arranged within a polymeric extracellular substance that they synthesize. 

The aim of this fundamental research project is to study the response of lipid metabolism (origin and functional role of oxylipins) in marine microphytobenthic biofilms to irradiance stress. In this case, irradiance represents the amount of solar energy reaching the photosynthetic microorganisms in the biofilm. In a coastal environment, this amount of energy can considerably and rapidly vary over a day.

The thesis research is at the interface of various scientific sectors (microscopic world, lipid metabolism, marine environment, benthic ecology, plasma physics or phylometabolomics) and is organized around the following three major axes:

• Effect of irradiance on the metabolome of biofilms.
• Functional role of oxylipins.
• Characterization of the metabolic pathways involved.