Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille

Country: France

Web: http://eep.univ-lille.fr/

Université de Lille 1 Sciences et Technologies is one of the leading science universities in France, has 20,000 registered students and is located at Villeneuve d’Ascq, in the middle of the chicory growing area. Research at the Unité Evolution, Ecologie et Paléontologie (EEP) UMR 8198 CNRS-Université de Lille concerns the origin and evolution of the biodiversity and paleo-biodiversity, notably in relation to environmental changes in diverse time scales.

Main themes in EEP include :

•Genomic evolution of plant reproductive systems

•Ecological evolutionary pressures on plant reproduction

•Ecological adaptation to climate change and human interventions

Many interactions with the Chicory breeding industry exist. The group has a long standing track record on investigations into the reproduction biology of chicory, in particular its sporophytic self-incompatibility system, and into developing molecular marker-based genetic maps of chicory.