The Plant Sciences Research master program gives students in-depth and up-to-date knowledges to acquire an integrated view of plant physiology and development, in interaction with changing environments. Aware of the societal challenges associated to crops, graduated students are able to propose and develop innovative research projects in Plant Sciences (mainly as PhD).

International students are wellcomed:  teachings are exclusively in english. Be careful: most non UE students have to postulate via the Campus France platform (see the list of concerned countries on their site)

From september to december, 6 multi-disciplinary and multi-scale learning units (2 weeks and 5 ECTS each) bring students extensive up-to-date knowledges and skills in plant integrative biology: genomics and breeding, epigenetics, cell biology and imaging, cell signalling, metabolic physiology and pathogeny-symbiosis.  Applied researches and challenges in crop breeding  and plant-microbe interactions are also studied in details. The second semester (30 ECTS, from january to june) corresponds to a 6 month-research internship.

In addition, numerous workshops and practical courses, in association with research teams and scientific platforms,  give students a sound scientific reasoning as well as excellent management and understanding of the modern challenges and methodologies in plant integrative physiology  (in particular omics).

The M2 session is common to the Université Paris Cité (previously Université de Paris) and the Université Paris Saclay, since more than 6 years. Students can apply to both universities or only to one university. In any case, their applications will be analyzed by a shared selection committee. Each accepted student will finally get a main registration in one university and a free secondary registration in the other one (to benefit from all facilities).

Thanks to our two universities and to the “Paris Saclay Plant Sciences-SPS”  Graduate school, students have the opportunity to apply to a master fellowship (6000 euros/year) or to an international mobility grant . Before application to one fellowship, please contact the training supervisors (see the “Management” below).

 Who ?

Profiles : Students with a validated Master 1  (60 ECTS) in Integrative biology and Physiology, Plant biology, Biology, Genetics or Molecular and Cell Biology (or equivalent, like 2nd/M1 year of agronomical engineer schools), Professionnals with a validated experience.

Pre-requisites : very good knowledges and M1 academic level in plant Physiology, Genetics, Cell and molecular biology – Good background in biostatistics, bio-informatics-  English level : at least B2– Strong motivation and professionnal project coherent with the employment opportunities of the degree- At least one internship or other professionnal experience in plant biology research (min 2 months) .

* When ?    before  June 7th 2024

* Where?

1- For french students and international students from EU  (or other countries that are not concerned by  the “Etudes en France-CampusFrance” application).

 APPLY online via the e-candidat platform on the “Université Paris-Cité” website :

https://ecandidat.app.u-paris.fr/sciences1/#!accueilView

If required, the  title of the M2 in french is :  master “Biologie intégrative et physiologie”- parcours Sciences du végétal- M2 SV)

Documents (obligatory) :

– 1 cover letter  (describing your professionnal project/experience and explaining clearly the M2 program you are applying to (Research or pro-IQPV, see the corresponding page) ,

– 1 curriculum vitae

– copies of all degrees (bachelor and post-bachelor)

– copies of all official transcripts (bachelor and post-bachelor studies)

Optional document (highly recommended) :

– Filled dedicated  “Application  form”

 Be careful:  additional official documents may be required for the online application.

2- For international students from countries concerned by  “Etudes en France”

    Apply online  before February 29th 2024 on  campusfrance-procedure-cef

* Admission procedure (all applications)

Admission/rejection of the applications will occur in two steps :

1-  Evaluation of the application form  by the admission committee for pre-selection

2-  Interview of pre-selected applicants by the admission committee.

• Around 80 to 90%  students find a PhD contract in Plant Sciences, just after the obtention of the master degree or at least 6 months after. The others either work as engineers in research labs or perform a complementary specialized training.
• An excellent scientific environment to learn Plant Sciences : close association with 5 research institutes (60 teams) in Plant Sciences (research seminars, practical courses in labs or platforms, internships),  strong financial support provided by the Ecole Universitaire de Recherche- Sciences des Plantes de Paris Saclay (EUR-SPS)  as well as the Université Paris Cité and the Université Paris Saclay.  
• a diverse pedagogic team composed of highly specialized researchers in each teaching unit.  
  
• Studies in Paris, the famous french capitale  (good transport facilities from teaching sites and the city center, less than 15 km)
  
• Small graduating class size (max 20 students) allowing an individual guidance

thiUniversité Paris Cité

Supervisors of the M2 Research program  :

Christine LELANDAIS-BRIERE    

Sophie FILLEUR                                

Administration/Scolarity  : 

Anicette ANON                                  

UFR Sciences du vivant, Bâtiment Lamarck, 35 rue Hélène Brion, bureau RH42, 75205 Paris cedex 13- France ;

tel : +33 (1) 57 27 82 35

Université Paris Saclay

Supervisors

Mathieu JOSSIER (U. Paris Saclay) :

Alia DELLAGI (AgroParisTech) :

 * Semester 1 : 6 teaching units: Plant genomics and breeding, Metabolic Physiology, Pathogeny-symbiosis, Signalling mechanisms in plants, Cell biology, Epigenetics (2 weeks each)

* Semester 2 : Research internship (6 months, from january to end of june)

Thematics : Main challenges for future plant breeding. Modern strategies based on genomics and biotechnologies. Evolution of the genomes in relation with domestication and human selection pressure. Reverse and direct genetics approaches in model plants and crops. Quantitative genetics and genomic selection in varietal selection. Importance of the control of sexual reproduction and seed quality in breeding programs. 

courses/seminars/visit of a breeding company, tutorials, practical course: NGS data obtention and analyses).

Expected skills: Understand how genomic and genetic approaches may be integrated into more efficient selection programs. Maîtriser conceptuellement et techniquement les nouveaux outils de génomique comme le séquençage à haut débit et  l’analyse des données associées.

Evaluation (5 ECTS) : ongoing monitoring (40%), final  exam (60%)

Presentation  

Thematics : Description, importance and interconnections of specific primary and secondary metabolites pathways. mechanisms of redox regulation, importance of the nutritional statut on plant physiology. High-throughput methodologies for the study of plant physiology and metabolisms (métabolomics, fluxomics,proteomics, phosphoproteomics…).  Analysis of metabolomics and proteomics data from ongoing research projects  (tutorials).

(courses/seminars , Tutorials, Practical workshop/metabolomic platform)

Expected skills

• Understand how plant metabolisms interact at the level of the whole plant. Manage high-throughput methodologies used in metabolic physiology. Integrate complexe multi-scale data to understand a physiological mechanism and plant acclimatation to one  stress.
• Analyze et present experimental results through redaction of a report.

Evaluation (5 ECTS) : ongoing monitoring  (30%)  – final exam (70%)

Presentation .

The main objectives of this course are 1) to show to students how pluridisciplinary and integrative approaches allow to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in plant-microorganism interactions. 2) to illustrate, through some examples, the strategies and adaptative/evolutive mechanisms of plant host-microorganisms complexes (from genes to microbial population) .

(interactive courses/seminars  : 8h, tutorial : 22h)

Thematics : Pathogeny, symbiosis and epidemiological processes

Expected skills:  Integrate fundamental knowledges on plant-microorganisms interactions and genomic/genetic approaches to propose innovative strategies for the obtention of novel resistant varieties. Understand the complexity of the plant microbiote and its fundamental roles.

Evaluation (5 ECTS) : ongoing monitoring (50%) – final exam (50%)

Presentation

Thematics :  Presentation of different signalling pathways in plants (common and specific concepts). The teaching unit is composed of a general introductive course on cellular signalling in plants (13h) , several research seminars by invited  french and international researchers specialist of one signalling pathway (10-12h) and tutorials/workshops (12h) focused on some signalling pathways and illustrating their dual role in development and stress responses.

Expected skills : understand the mechanisms of plant  cell signalling and propose pertinent approaches for their study. Analyzeand resume experimental results from a research paper.

Evaluation (5 ECTS) : ongoing monitoring (30%) – final exam (70%)

This teaching unit  is centered on ongoing researchs of one laboratory (ie what is the role of cell division in plant morphogenesis?)  and illustrates how different approaches of plant and cell imaging may help to adress this question.  During a practical course of one week (and helped by tutorials), students will be immersed in this research project. They will organize and perform  their own experiments (phenotyping, different imaging and cytology technics). They will analyse the resulting data and present them in a synthetic figure. In addtion, they will discover microscopy facilities and their specific uses during a 2 day-workshop at one microscopy platform (IJPB, Curie, I2BC, IPS2 institutes).

(Practical course alternating with tutorials : 5 days – Workshop at a cell biology platform: 2 days- personal work- evaluation-seminar : 3 days)

Expected skills : Manage and choice autonomously pertinent microscopic/cytologic methods to adress one biological question. Propose and perform (alone or collectively) an experimental design.  Collect, analyse and present experimental results.  Contribute to ongoing researches by integrating a team and propose innovative strategies .

Evaluation (5 ECTS) : Practical course (50%) – workshop at the microscopy platform  (50%)

(Presentation  .

This teaching unit is composed of courses/research seminars (14h) and tutorials (16h). The main mecanisms of epigenetic regulation will be presented, as well as examples of their essential biological roles in plant development, metabolism and biotic interactions. Students will also be initiated to epigenomic methods during workshops where they will analyse data sets from chromatin immunoprecipitation and small RNA sequencing experiments.

Expected skills : Understand and choose autonomously the main methodologies to study epigenetic modifications in link with a biological question. Get practical basis in the use of  tools for analysis of some epigenomics data (ChIP-Seq and smallRNA-Seq).  Perform a critical analysis and present experimental results from a scientific publication.

Evaluation (5 ECTS) :  workshop (50%)- publication analysis (50%)

Presentation : The 6 month-research internship is obligatory (from january to the end of june).

Expected skills : Contribute to a research project with dynamics and autonomy; integrate a working team; follow rigorously protocols and a scientific strategy to answer a problematics; obtain, collect and present experimental results (oral and written); find and synthesize the bibliographic data on one thematics.

Evaluation (30 ECTS) : pre-internship oral presentation (10%), internship oral presentation and written report (90%)

Pre-teaching week (with oral presentation of the internship projects and revisions) : from august 28th or 2th or September 2024 (to be confirmed)

First teaching week  :  September 2th or 9th 2024

Semester 1 :

from September to end of December

exams first session : 2 weeks in December 2024 (before Christmas vacations)

Semester 2 :

research internship  : from january to june

internship presentation : oral presentation (mid-june approximately) and written report (beginning of June)

exams semester 1 session 2 : may or June

internship presentation session 2  : to be determined

Where?

 in different research institutes  (mainly at Orsay, bat 630, IPS2, 15 km from Paris, RER B transport)

Les principaux instituts / laboratoires de recherche partenaires de la formation sont :

et d’autres hors région parisienne…