L'institut Agro | Montpellier SupAgro

The use of new disease-resistant grapevine varieties is a long-term but promising solution to reduce chemical inputs in viticulture. However, little is known about water deficit effects on these varieties, notably regarding berry composition. The aim of this study was to characterize the primary metabolites and thiol precursors levels of 6 fungi-resistant varieties and Syrah. Vines were grown under field conditions and under different water supply levels, and harvested at the phloem unloading arrest. A great variability among varieties regarding the levels of thiol precursors was observed, with the highest concentration, of 539 μg/kg, being observed in 3176-N, a hybrid displaying red fruits. Water deficit negatively and equally impacted the accumulation of sugars, organic acids, and thiol precursors per berry and per plant, with minor effects on their concentration. The observed losses of metabolites per cultivation area suggest that water deficits can lead to significant economic losses for the producer.

The services provided by agroforestry trees are numerous, especially on the economic front. They help to improve the business model of the farm by diversifying activities and incomes for the farmer. However, agroforestry trees grow in very different conditions than in traditional forests; mainly because of the specific environmental conditions like their higher exposure to wind and light and the strong interactions with annual crops. Moreover, numerous human operations on branches (pruning) and the soil tillage, that can affect the root systems, modify the growing conditions too. Production level and quality such as anatomical, chemical and technological properties of wood coming from agroforestry systems have not yet been investigated. The present study aims to understand how the particular agroforestry growing conditions affect the trees’ development - especially primary and secondary growths. A comparative study on the growing kinetics in height and diameter, from 1995 to 2014 of hybrid walnut trees in an agroforestry plot and in a forest control plot, was performed at the Restinclières experimental Platform, in France. The results show that the quantities of biomass produced by the agroforestry walnut trees are higher than those produced by their forestry control trees. However, these tendency need to be qualified, because the two plots showed a great deal of variability, particularly in terms of water availability, which is one of the parameters that has been detailed in this work. Such results could provide interesting data to the farmers to promote access of agroforestry wood to conventional and/or niche markets.

The taxonomy of earthworms has been riddled by instability, lack of systematically useful characters, and lax diagnoses of some genera. This has led to the use of some genera such as Allolobophora Eisen, 1874 as taxonomic wastebaskets, blurring their evolution and biogeographical history. The implementation of molecular techniques has revolutionized the systematics of the genus; however, some of its species have not been previously included in molecular phylogenetic analyses. Thus, the molecular markers COI, 16S, ND1, 12S, and 28S were sequenced for six endemic species including several taxa of Allolobophora and Aporrectodea Örely, 1885 (another related catch-all genus). Phylogenetic relationships determined by Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analyses support the status of two of the six taxa examined (Allolobophora burgondiae Bouché, 1972 and Aporrectodea icterica Savigny, 1826) as part of Allolobophora sensu stricto and a presumed synonymy between Allolobophora and Heraclescolex Qiu and Bouché, 1998. Branch lengths and average pairwise genetic distances support the transfer of Allolobophora satchelli Bouché, 1972 to the genus Panoniona Mršić and Šapkarev, 1988 and the emergence of two new genera, Heraultia gen. nov. and Vosgesia gen. nov., endemic to France, hosting Allolobophora tiginosa Bouché, 1972 and Allolobophora zicsii Bouché, 1972, respectively. The aforementioned changes of status and the diagnosis for Heraultia and Vosgesia are presented. These results provided more evolutionarily and biogeographically coherent earthworm groups and highlighted that the Maghreb and the area around the Alps are potential key locations for the diversification of Allolobophora and several lineages of Lumbricidae.

Cette étude met en lumière l’impact de l’innovation sur l’orientation-marché et les performances d’une coopérative de valorisation des coproduits du figuier de barbarie en Algérie. Alors que la question des performances de l’entreprenariat collectif a été largement débattue, elle l’a été beaucoup moins pour des coopératives innovantes. Dans ce travail, nous mettons l’accent sur les performances de ce modèle d’entreprenariat fondé sur la réappropriation d’innovations techniques. Dans ce sens, notre analyse cherche à étendre la recherche empirique antérieure sur les performances des coopératives agricoles en introduisant l’orientation vers le marché et une évaluation plus globale des performances socioéconomiques des coopératives innovantes comme Nopaltec. Nos résultats portant sur les « autres » performances – rôle dans l’appropriation collective et la diffusion de l’innovation, structuration de la filière, fonctions socio-politique et territoriale de la coopérative – plaident pour une lecture élargie des performances des structures coopératives agricoles.

Les agriculteurs utilisant les eaux des khettaras, galeries souterraines drainant la nappe phréatique et donnant un accès collectif à l’eau souterraine dans les oasis, font aujourd’hui face à un dilemme. Les khettaras se tarissent sous l’effet conjugué du pompage pour l’eau potable et de l’irrigation des exploitations agricoles des nouvelles extensions, et d’une recharge décroissante de la nappe. Leurs khettaras menacées de disparition, certains collectifs ont choisi d’installer des puits ou des forages alimentés par l’énergie solaire. Cela permet de renforcer le débit des khettaras et ainsi de maintenir l’accès collectif à l’eau souterraine, mais ces installations contribuent aussi à sa surexploitation. Dans cet article, nous mettons en discussion ce choix cornélien des communautés oasiennes dans le sud du Maroc. Des observations de terrain, l’analyse des images satellites, et des enquêtes avec les agriculteurs ont permis de comprendre le contexte d’émergence d’un dispositif associant la khettara au pompage par énergie solaire, d’analyser sa conception technique et de mettre en évidence la capacité des oasiens à intervenir sur les règles de gestion pour superposer ce dispositif technique et institutionnel nouveau au système traditionnel des khettaras. Cet article contribue à une réflexion sur la durabilité de l’accès à l’eau souterraine dans ce contexte présaharien.

Agroecological techniques (AET) have been recognized by many farmers, NGOs, and farmers’ organizations (FOs) as a promising solution for slowing down the persistent soil fertility degradation in West African drylands. In the context of Burkina, the promotion of AET is the result of the interactions between NGOs and farmers’ knowledge through the intermediation of FOs. Although numerous studies have highlighted the instrumental role of FOs in the dissemination of AET in Burkina, there are limited studies focusing on the historical dynamic of FOs’ involvement in the promotion of agroecology. To address this gap, this study aims to answer the following questions: why and how do FOs get involved in the promotion of agroecological techniques, and how do they define the term agroecology or agroecological techniques? A multiple case study approach was used to provide the answer to these questions. The results from the case studies reveal that the FOs’ promotion of AET is largely connected to their aim of fulfilling one of the following three goals: enhancing the productivity of commercial crops; improving the resilience of subsistence farmers; enhancing both the productivity of commercial crops and the resilience of subsistence farmers. The quest to achieve these goals explained their constant interaction with external partners to get the necessary assistance for the provision of agroecological support services to their farmers. Furthermore, the results of the study also reveal that the Farmers’ Organizations' definitions of agroecology or agroecological terms are mostly associated with the interpretation of agroecology as a collective practice encompassing both economic and ecological aspects of Burkinabè agriculture. A broader insight is that while FOs can fulfill important roles in agroecology transitions this comes with diverse interpretations of agroecology, in which FOs facilitate the hybridization of existing farmers ’practices with those proposed by external actors. The study concludes by suggesting areas for further research regarding the investigation of the effectiveness of the FOs’ promotion of agroecology by looking at the influence of FOs on the drivers of farmers’ decisions towards AET.

The development of techniques for the rapid, inexpensive, and accurate determination of the phosphorus (P) availability and sorption index (PSI) in soils is important for P management in highly weathered tropical soils. The applicability of near- and mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR and MIR) as tools for estimating P availability and PSI was assessed over a wide range of highly weathered soils in Madagascar. The predictions were based on chemometric methods using multivariate calibration models with partial least squares (PLS) regressions, and pedotransfer functions (PTFs). Chemometric methods failed to predict available P (Presin). However, a P sorption index, determined as the P remaining in solution (Prem), was estimated with acceptable accuracy with both NIR and MIR (R2cv = 0.70 − 0.73; R2v = 0.65 − 0.77; SEP(c) = 5.5 − 4.6 mg kg−1). The PTFs showed that the PSI was well explained by iron oxide, gibbsite, and sand contents, all of these compounds being well predicted by NIR or MIR (R2v > 0.70). These results indicate that NIR and MIR can be helpful for a rapid estimate of PSI of highly weathered ferralitic soils.

Wheat is the most widely grown food crop, with 761 Mt produced globally in 2020. To meet the expected grain demand by mid-century, wheat breeding strategies must continue to improve upon yield-advancing physiological traits, regardless of climate change impacts. Here, the best performing doubled haploid (DH) crosses with an increased canopy photosynthesis from wheat field experiments in the literature were extrapolated to the global scale with a multi-model ensemble of process-based wheat crop models to estimate global wheat production. The DH field experiments were also used to determine a quantitative relationship between wheat production and solar radiation to estimate genetic yield potential. The multi-model ensemble projected a global annual wheat production of 1,050 ± 145 Mt due to the improved canopy photosynthesis, a 37% increase, without expanding cropping area. Achieving this genetic yield potential would meet the lower estimate of the projected grain demand in 2050, albeit with considerable challenges.

In ecology, an increase in genetic diversity within a community in natural ecosystems increases its productivity, while in evolutionary biology, kinship selection predicts that relatedness on social traits improves fitness. Varietal mixtures, where different genotypes are grown together, show contrasting results, especially for grain yield where both positive and negative effects of mixtures have been reported. To understand the effect of diversity on field performance, we grew 96 independent mixtures each composed with 12 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum Thell.) inbred lines, under two contrasting environmental conditions for water availability. Using dense genotyping, we imputed allelic frequencies and a genetic diversity index on more than 96000 loci for each mixture. We then analyzed the effect of genetic diversity on agronomic performance using a genome-wide approach. We explored the stress gradient hypothesis, which proposes that the greater the unfavourable conditions, the more beneficial the effect of diversity on mixture performance. We found that diversity on average had a negative effect on yield and its components while it was beneficial on grain weight. There was little support for the stress gradient theory. We discuss how to use genomic data to improve the assembly of varietal mixtures.

Scope: The purpose of the study is to characterize the chemical diversity in Rice bran (RB) lipidome and determine whether daily RB consumption for 4 weeks may modulate plasma lipid profiles in children. Methods and results: Untargeted and targeted lipidomics via ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) were applied to identify bioactive RB lipids from a collection of 17 rice varieties. To determine the impact of RB (Calrose-USA variety) supplementation on plasma lipid profile, a secondary analysis of plasma lipidome was conducted on data recorded in a clinical study (NCT01911390, n = 18 moderately hypercholesterolemic children) before and after 4 weeks of dietary intervention (15 g/d) with a control or RB supplemented snack. Untargeted lipidomic revealed 118 lipids as the core of lipidome across all 17 varieties among which phospholipids were abundant and oxylipins present. Phytoprostanes and phytofurans were quantified and characterized. Lipidome analysis of the children plasma following RB consumption revealed the presence of novel polar lipids and oxylipins alongside putative modulations in endocannabinoids associated with RB consumption. Conclusion: The investigation of novel polar lipids, oxylipins, phytoprostanes, and phytofurans in RB extracts provides support for new health-promoting properties especially interesting for people at risk for cardiometabolic disease. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Labneh Ambaris is a traditional Lebanese dairy product traditionally made using raw goat’s milk in earthenware jars, but recently the use of artisanally pasteurized milk was introduced for safety reasons. In this study, 12 samples of labneh Ambaris were studied, six made using raw goat’s milk and six others using artisanally pasteurized goat’s milk. These samples were collected during fermentation and their microbial compositions were analyzed. The 16S V3–V4 and the ITS2 regions of the rDNA were sequenced by DNA metabarcoding analyses for the identification and comparison of bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. The samples had high microbial diversity but differences in samples microbiota were unrelated to whether or not milk was pasteurized. The samples were consequently clustered on the basis of their dominant bacterial or fungal species, regardless of the milk used. Concerning bacterial communities, samples were clustered into 3 groups, one with a higher abundance of Lactobacillus helveticus, another with Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens as the dominant bacterial species, and the third with Lentilactobacillus sp. as the most abundant species. Species belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family were detected in higher abundance in all raw milk samples than in artisanally pasteurized milk samples. As for fungal communities, the samples were clustered into two groups, one dominated by Geotrichum candidum and the other by Pichia kudriavzevii. Keywords: labneh Ambaris; raw milk; artisanal pasteurization; microbial diversity; DNA metabarcoding

High-protein dairy powders are ingredients mainly produced by spray-drying, then subjected to aging during transport and storage. They often undergo physicochemical changes at this stage, such as the development of the Maillard reaction, primarily because of their intrinsic chemical properties, but also as a result of nonoptimal storage conditions. Components present at the particle surface are the first to be targeted by moisture and other environmental disruptions. Consequently, the identification, control, and prediction of particle surface components are useful to anticipate the effect of powder aging on product quality. Here, a new diafiltration method is proposed which fractionates proteins from a binary colloidal dispersion of 80% casein micelles and 20% whey proteins, according to their presence at the surface or core of the particle. This method shows that whey proteins are strongly enriched at the particle surface, whereas casein micelles are located at the core of the particles. This protocol also allows the identification of the rehydration kinetics for each rehydrated protein layer of the particle, revealing that 2 distinct forms of swelling occur: (1) a rapid swelling and elution of whey proteins present at the particle surface, and (2) a swelling of casein micelles located below the whey proteins, associated with a slow elution of casein micelles from the particles being rehydrated.

Horses are herbivores, and their hindgut functions as a fluid reservoir as forage fibre properties have great impact on the water content of digesta and the milieu in the ecosystem. Our objective was to compare the effect of grass fibre maturity and legume forage on the water-holding capacity (WHC) and viscosity of the equine hindgut and the body weight (BW) and fluid balance of horses. Three diets: concentrate and late harvested grass haylage (35:65 energy ratio) (C); early and late harvested grass haylage (80:20) (G); lucerne and late harvested grass haylage (80:20) (L) were fed to six caecum and colon fistulated horses for 28 days in a Latin-square design. Total water intake and BW were higher when the horses were fed Diet L, but the digesta WHC was higher when fed Diet G. Total water excretion (via faeces + urine) and the difference in total water intake—output was higher when fed Diet L. Viscosity, measured on centrifuged digesta fluid, did not differ between diets, but the individual colon data of one horse were higher. In conclusion, early harvested forage might be beneficial for the fluid balance of athletic horses providing a higher WHC of hindgut digesta without increasing BW. The importance of digesta viscosity in relation to equine diets needs further investigations.

Purpose/Objective(s) Organs at risk annotation is a strong bottleneck of Magnetic resonance imaging guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) in the context of adaptive treatment. It is a time-consuming task that reduces patient throughput (20% of the fraction duration dedicated to contouring) while suffering standardization and reproducibility across physicians, hampering the accuracy of high precision MRgRT and diminishing its adoption potential. AI-contouring becomes a game changer in radiation oncology since it is able within seconds to provide a full OAR delineation that could be close to clinical acceptance with little modifications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of AI-contouring within a multi-centric cohort for patients with pelvic / abdominal tumors treated with low field (0.35T) MRgRT. Materials/Methods In the context of this study, a CE/FDA cleared anatomically preserving ensemble deep-learning architecture contouring solution was considered. The adopted solution was trained using more than 350 0.35T MR fully annotated pelvic cases according to the ESTRO guidelines and 270 annotated abdomen fractions samples. A retrospective cohort involving 42 test cases coming from seven different institutions (US: 1, EU: 5, AS: 1) was considered. The clinical delineations used for treatment planning from expert physicians/medical physicists were associated with these cases. Results It appears that treatment practices can be very different between institutions since the use of OAR constraints were far from being uniformly adopted. Bladder & liver dosimetry constraints were the most frequently used (100% & 90%) while abdominal aorta and seminal vesicle were the least adopted (24% & 15%). The average DSC between Clinical experts and AI annotations was 78% across all structures. Bladder and left/right kidney were the structures for which the highest DSC were observed (93%, 91% & 90%), while penile bulb and duodenum were the ones with the lowest agreement (54% & 59%). AI solutions seem to have important discrepancies with clinical contours in organs on which either the volume is small or there are practice-related uncertainties with respect to the definition of beginning and the end of the structure. For quantitative evaluation, dice similarity coefficients (DSC) and 95% Hausdorff distances (HD95) were calculated. Conclusion This retrospective multi-centric study demonstrates that AI-driven contours could be a reliable alternative to clinical contours offering performance that appears to be close to the human expert for many of the structures while increasing throughput and offering automatization & standardization.

Purpose/Objective(s) Magnetic Resonance is an essential modality in the context of radiotherapy primarily for providing additional information with respect to tumor functional information leading to better target delineation (brain, prostate, etc.) and secondary in the context of emergence of magnetic resonance guided radiotherapy. However, in both cases computed tomography acquisition remains necessary for dosimetric purposes hampering the workflow, introducing additional cost and dose simulation/optimization discrepancies (due to the registration issues between MR & CT) while being associated with additional patient toxicity. This study aims to investigate in a retrospective manner the relevance deep learning synthetic CT generation as an alternative for simulation and planning for pelvic tumors treated with low field (0.35T) MRgRT. Materials/Methods In the context of this study, a cycle generative adversarial neural network (GAN) deep learning architecture was trained to determine a bijective transformation between a low field (0.35T) MR and the associated computed tomography scan acquisition. The training set involved 350 pairs of weakly aligned data of pelvis cases. A retrospective cohort involving 20 test cases coming from eight different institutions (US: 2, EU: 5, AS: 1) involving different CT vendors was considered for testing. Results Reconstruction performance was assessed using the OARs used for treatment. The observed average scaled (between maximum and minimum HU values of the CT) difference between the reconstructed and the CT used for planning was 35.08 with significant discrepancies across organs. Femoral heads were the most reliably reconstructed (4.51 & 4.77) while rectum and sigmoid were the less precise ones (53.13 & 51.48). In terms of qualitative evaluation, the presence of fiducial markers heavily penalizes the reconstruction due to the implicit propagation of errors associated with the "convolution" nature of deep learning. The presence of air bubbles visible on the CT (sigmoid and rectum) is also an issue since these elements are marginally perceptible in the MR and therefore can hardly be predicted from generator. Detailed reconstruction results per organ are appended. Conclusion This retrospective multi-centric study is a first step toward assessing the potential of a fully low field MR-based treatment planning workflow that eliminates the need of CT acquisition. Integration of the synthetic CT in the simulation/optimization and assessment of the induced dosimetric errors are necessary steps to determine the clinical relevance of our preliminary findings.

Purpose/Objective(s) Overlapping genes are involved with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and DNA repair pathways. Therefore, we hypothesized that patients with a high polygenic risk score (PRS) for RA will have an increased risk of radiotherapy (RT) toxicity. Materials/Methods Data from 1681 men with prostate cancer were available from the multicenter perspective REQUITE study. Germline DNA was genotyped using a sequencing platform and imputed using the 1000 Genomes Project Phase 3. PRS and weighted-PRS (wPRS) were calculated for RA (101 SNPs) and analyzed as continuous variables and using a >95th percentile cut-off. Univariable and multivariable linear regression models analyzed relationships with: 1) acute and late standardized total averaged toxicity (STAT) scores; and 2) individual toxicity end points. Acute toxicity was defined as max reported toxicity within 90 days of RT (14 rectal, bladder and bowel endpoints) and late toxicity defined as max reported after 90 days for 5 endpoints. Multivariable analyses included: age, diabetes, previous surgery, hormone therapy and prescribed dose (converted to biologically equivalent dose). Residuals from multivariable linear regression models for acute and late STAT were calculated (rSTAT). Individual SNP gene doses were analyzed using linear regression against rSTAT to identify individual SNPs associated with worse reported toxicity. Bonferroni correction accounted for multiple testing with p<0.0005 considered significant. Results Men with >95th percentile PRS had a significantly worse STATacute (p=0.02 in multivariable analysis). Age, previous surgery and hormones were also associated with worse STATacute. For individual acute toxicity end points, hematuria (p=0.05) and dysuria (p=0.003) were higher in patients with >95th percentile PRS. PRS (p=0.02) and wPRS (p=0.03) were associated with worse STATlate on multivariable analysis. Patients with >95th percentile PRS also had worse STATlate on multivariable analysis (p=0.008). Age, previous surgery, hormones and dose were also associated with worse late STAT. For individual late toxicity endpoints, hematuria (p=0.01) and urinary frequency (p=0.006) showed a significant association with wPRS. Analysis of individual SNP gene doses against rSTATacute identified an association with rs138193887 (p=0.0005) located in ATM, a gene linked with radiosensitivity. Conclusion Men with prostate cancer and a high PRS for RA have an increased risk of acute and late toxicities after radiotherapy. Analysis of individual toxicity endpoints have identified bladder toxicities as most strongly associated with the RA PRS. Results will be validated in further cohorts, but suggest an actionable target for further bladder sparing for these men.

Land use change is one of the most important determinants of carbon storage and dynamics in ecosystems. Areas in the proximity of metropoles undergo land use changes but are poorly studied for their soil and biomass carbon budget, especially in Africa. Close to Benin's economic capital, the Lama territory located on the Allada plateau is subject to high demographic and urbanization pressures. Carbon (C) stocks in the region are likely to be rapidly changing. This research assessed the land use changes and quantified the spatial distribution and variation of C stocks between 2000 and 2018 on the Ferralsols of the study area. Random Forest models using spectral bands of Landsat images and some spectral indices as predictors were calibrated to classify the land use. C stocks of four C pools (aboveground, belowground biomass, litter, and soil) were mapped with InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model. Land use change occurred in 61% of the Ferralsol area between 2000 and 2018. The surface of forests and crop‐plantation associations decreased in benefit of tree plantations, adult palm groves, and built‐up areas. With the loss of forest surface and the increasing urbanization, C stocks of the region decreased by ‐218 Gg C with 4% uncertainty (‐175 Gg C in soil pools, and ‐125 Gg C in aboveground biomass with both 6% uncertainty) between 2000 and 2018. Results highlight (i) the need for soil C stock accounting to avoid underestimation of C stocks evolution in a rural region and (ii) the relevance of tree plantations and deforestation control to maintain the C stocks in tropical areas.

Concentrations of anthocyanins and tannins after extraction from berries in wines and from skin macerations in model solutions have been studied for two grape varieties, two maturation levels and two vintages berries. Characterization of the cell wall polysaccharides has also been performed, the classical method based on the analysis of the neutral sugars after depolymerization being completed by a comprehensive microarray polymer profiling (CoMPP). Extraction was lower in model solutions than in wines, with the same ranking: non acylated anthocyanins> tannins > p-coumaroylated anthocyanins. The polysaccharidic composition suggested a role of homogalacturonans, rhamnogalacturonans and extensins in the extraction process. A global explanation of the interactions between anthocyanins, tannins and polysaccharides is proposed.

Mutations in amino acid sequences can affect protein function. Such aspects have been poorly studied for arthropods. As recent studies have shown mutations in cytochrome b (Cytb) associated with geographic locations in several Phytoseiidae species, the present study aims at investigating (i) the mutation pattern in additional species for the Cytb fragment, (ii) the mutation pattern for another mitochondrial amino acid sequence, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI), and (iii) factors affecting the mutations observed (taxonomy, plant support, climatic variables, wild vs. commercialised species). Mutations in amino acid sequences were assessed in seven Phytoseiidae species, with populations collected in contrasted environments. The DNA sequences were mainly obtained from published studies and some were newly obtained. Mutations were observed within and between the populations considered for both fragments, with higher mutation rates in Cytb than in COI sequences, confirming the robustness of this former fragment. Plant support and taxonomic position were not related to mutation patterns. A lower number of mutations was observed in commercialised populations than in wild ones. As preliminary tendencies, mutations in Cytb and COI sequences seem associated to temperature and moisture. Such a preliminary approach, attempting to relate mutation to functional adaptations, clearly opens new research tracks for better assessment of the drivers of mite adaptation, in a context of climate change.

By dint of the development of agroecological practices and organic farming, stakeholders are becoming more and more aware of the importance of soil life and banning a growing number of pesticide molecules, promoting the use of plant bio-stimulants. To justify and promote the use of microbes in agroecological practices and sustainable agriculture, a number of functions or services often are invoked: (i) soil health, (ii) plant growth promotion, (iii) biocontrol, (iv) nutrient acquiring, (v) soil carbon storage, etc. In this paper, a review and a hierarchical classification of plant fungal partners according to their ecosystemic potential with regard to the available technologies aiming at field uses will be discussed with a particular focus on interactive microbial associations and functions such as Mycorrhiza Helper Bacteria (MHB) and nurse plants.