Proposal of a ranking methodology for plant threats in the EU.

Following a request of the European Commission, EFSA and ANSES, beneficiary of the EFSA tasking grant on horizon scanning for plant pests (GP/EFSA/ALPHA/2017/02), developed a methodology to order by risk non-regulated pests recently identified through the monitoring of media and scientific literature. The ranking methodology proposed at the end of the pilot phase was based on the scoring of pests under evaluation following 16 criteria related to the steps of the pest risk assessment scheme. The multicriteria matrix of scores obtained was then submitted to the multicriteria analysis method PROMETHEE.

Alternatives to neonicotinoids.

The European Food Safety Authority concluded in February 2018 that "most uses of neonicotinoid insecticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees". In 2016, the French government passed a law banning the use of the five neonicotinoids previously authorized: clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, acetamiprid and thiacloprid. In the framework of an expert assessment conducted by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety to identify possible derogations, we performed a thorough assessment of the available alternatives to the five banned neonicotinoids.

Over-expression of the yeast BFR2 gene partially suppresses the growth defects induced by Brefeldin A and by four ER-to-Golgi mutations.

The fungal metabolite Brefeldin A (BFA) disrupts the Golgi apparatus and its incoming protein flux. We developed a genetic approach to identify yeast proteins involved in the protein transport step that BFA blocks. The BFR2 gene (YDR299W) was thus isolated as a high-copy suppressor of the growth defects induced by BFA in a sensitive strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Modifications of the Golgi apparatus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking microtubules.

Background: Disassembly of cytoplasmic microtubules by nocodazole in cultured mammalian cells leads to the disruption of the continuous ribbonlike Golgi apparatus and dispersal of the Golgi elements from their normal juxtanuclear location, close to the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC), toward the cell periphery. Clearing of the drug induces reassembly of the microtubules from the MTOC and reorganization of the Golgi elements into a continuous ribbonlike juxtanuclear structure. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Golgi apparatus does not form a continuous structure as in mammalian cells but instead constitutes independent units dispersed throughout the cytoplasm.