Publications by authors named "Laurent Folcher"

Seen as an integral part of sustainable development, circular economy represents a model of production and consumption notably based on the limitation of both resource wastage and environmental impact. Laboratories and commercial companies working on plant pathogens, in particular quarantine species, must effectively disinfect their waste to avoid disseminating these organisms. The methods used for waste disinfection can however incur high energy costs or pose environmental and human health hazards.

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Plant parasitic nematodes are highly abundant in all agrosystems and some species can have a major impact on crop yields. To avoid the use of chemical agents and to find alternative methods to manage these pests, research studies have mainly focused on plant resistance genes and biocontrol methods involving host plants or natural enemies. A specific alternative method may consist in supporting non-damaging indigenous species that could compete with damaging introduced species to decrease and keep their abundance at low level.

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Our knowledge of the diversity of potato cyst nematodes in their native areas still remains patchy and should be improved. A previous study based on 42 Peruvian populations revealed a clear south to north phylogeographic pattern, with five well-supported clades and maximum diversity observed in the south of Peru. In order to investigate this phylogeographic pattern more closely, we genotyped a larger collection of Peruvian populations using both cathepsin L gene sequence data and a new set of 13 microsatellite loci.

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Understanding the ways in which human environmental modifications affect biodiversity is a key challenge in conservation planning, pest control and evolutionary ecology. Parasitoid communities, particularly those associated with agricultural pests, may be susceptible to such modifications. We document here changes in the larval parasitoid communities of Ostrinia nubilalis--the main pest of maize--and its sibling species O.

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