MISTIC

Digital sciences hold tremendous potential to facilitate and accelerate the development and deployment of agroecological innovations. Agroecological cropping systems undergo numerous biotic interactions with complex microbial communities, some of which provide beneficial functions related to defense or nutrition, while others have detrimental effects, including microbial parasites and pathogens that exploit plant resources. The diversity and dynamics of these interactions depend on ecological conditions, phenotypes, physiology, and the abiotic environment. Deciphering the links between interspecies diversity, community structures, and biological functions allows us to understand, maintain, diagnose, and harness the community dynamics underlying crop health and adaptation to environmental stress.

The MISTIC project aims to develop new tools for multi-omics data analysis and multi-scale spatiotemporal models of microbial communities in crops. Three main working axes are organized for this purpose:

• Large-scale metagenome analysis to study the functional properties of plant-pathogen interaction networks ;
• Construction of digital twins of reduced microbial communities and plant-microbiome systems in the form of validated spatiotemporal models ;
• Utilization of culturomics to design and cultivate microbial communities as experimental models that are controlled and replicable, in contrast to natural communities, for each pathobiont or symbiont of interest.

The MISTIC project's strategy, based on systems biology, aims to address methodological challenges arising from biocontrol applications both upstream and downstream. The expected results, in the form of software and mathematical tools, will help identify the links between microbial community structure and plant response, thus identifying determinants that impact plant health and traits, enabling the design of ideotypes and associations of species with agronomic interest. These new tools have translational applications that can be tested as part of the major challenge "Biocontrol and Biostimulants" within the SADEA strategy. The data acquired in this project will constitute a unique reusable resource for French scientists, including those developing methods, applications, or representing the interests of agroecological stakeholders.

The MISTIC project brings together a consortium based on strong complementarity between INRAE, Inria, and the Sophia Agrobiotech Institute. The involved teams provide diverse expertise in computer science, mathematics, and biology.

Project website.