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Background: The ascomycete Leveillula taurica causes powdery mildew of pepper, resulting in yield losses of up to 40%. This obligate biotrophic fungus has a wide host range including different plant families such as Solanaceae, Asteraceae and Cucurbitaceae. Molecular diversity studies of this pathogen, mainly based on the ITS (internal transcribed spacer), have revealed different clades distributed by host species. This pathogen is present at a worldwide level on pepper crop, however the L. taurica diversity isolated on pepper crops have never been conducted, neither phenotypically, nor molecularly. Despite the importance of this pathogen, very few molecular information exists. Recently, a draft genome has been published, but no reference genome is available yet. Studying the diversity of this pathogen could help breeding strategies for durable resistant pepper varieties.

Laboratory: INRAE, UR GAFL (Génétique et Amélioration des Fruits et Légumes), Domaine St Maurice, 67 Allée des Chênes, 84143 Montfavet Cedex, France
Internship period: Flexible (March-August)
Hard skills: general interest in molecular biology and in microscopy, basis experience in R software and in statistics, reading scientific articles in English.
Soft skills: motivation, curiosity, a major investment

License 3 / master 1 internship subject for 2-4 months