Iron (Fe) is one of the most common metals in the Earth's crust, but plants are often unable to absorb it as it forms insoluble complexes, especially in alkaline soils. This unavailability leads to poor crop yields and low nutritional quality. As Fe fertilization is rather ineffective and costly, around half of the world's crops suffer from iron deficiency. To mitigate Fe deficiency symptoms and maintain nutrient homeostasis, plants rely on a protein called Iron-Regulated Transporter 1 (IRT1) to take up iron from the soil. However, IRT1 also absorbs other metals that are more easily available in Fe-deficient soils. These metals can be harmful to plants if absorbed in excess, causing damage to cellular compounds through the formation of reactive oxygen species. To limit this toxicity, IRT1 is able to sense metal excess, leading to its degradation to avoid further uptake. To better understand this feedback loop, previous work from the host laboratory uncovered interactants of IRT1 under non-Fe metal excess, including General Regulatory Factors (GRFs) which are known to modulate the functions of their targets by controlling their subcellular localization or cell polarity, preventing their degradation or allowing their interaction with additional partners. The GIFT project aims to uncover how plants balance iron uptake and protect themselves from excess of harmful metals to eventually improve crops development and reach better yields. To this avail, I will (1) investigate the involvement of IRT1-interacting GRFs in plant metal homeostasis through molecular and physiological analyses of plant metal excess responses; (2) decipher the molecular mechanisms governing the association of GRFs to IRT1; (3) and elucidate their putative role in the control of IRT1 subcellular localization and cell polarity. This multidisciplinary research will expand my expertise in plant physiology and cellular biology. It will help me to consolidate my position as an independent researcher.

Writing the history of ancient religions usually starts with the gods, considered as personifications linked by kinship or affinity. Yet this oversimplified approach overlooks the fact that gods are multifaceted powers, not individuals. MAP proposes to exploit the epithets attributed to the gods as the most efficient indicator of their multiple powers and modes of action, as well as their connection to places where humans interact with them. Epithets identify the god(s) invoked and thus enhance the effectiveness of ritual communication. With the great number of combinations produced by epithets, their entire repertoire results in a highly complex system of divine networks. The volume and complexity of the data is beyond the limits of what traditional methods can handle. Today, thanks to Big Data and Social Network technologies, which deal with large related groups, we can map the divine and understand how human societies modified these ensembles of names and epithets to meet their needs. MAP intends, for the first time, to compile all attestations of divine epithets in context to enable large-scale analyses. It adopts a comparative approach to two areas: the Greek world and the Western Semitic world during the first millennium BC. Methodologically, MAP innovates by linking the systematic compiling of epithets with Social Network Analysis in order to map the groups, links and polarities of the networks that divine epithets reveal, and interprets them in the light of historical dynamics. Understanding the interface between systems and contexts is one of the major gains of MAP. Religion is explored as an area of social experimentation between norms and inventiveness. MAP also revisits the relationship between religious thought and practice, and between polytheistic and monotheistic systems, questioning the relevance of these categories. The results promise considerable advances in our understanding of ancient religions.