Submillimeter spectroscopy of microbial volatile compounds

⮞ Équipe DOP ⮞ Thématiques de recherche ⮞ Activité « Polarimétrie, senseurs et imagerie » ⮞

Presentation

Spectroscopy in the millimeter and submillimeter ranges reveals the rotation-vibration movements of molecules, allowing them to be identified without ambiguity. By carrying out this spectroscopy with a synthesizer that is highly tunable in frequency, at low pressure, we will therefore be able to identify a large number of molecules of biological interest and thus highlight the volatile metabolites of microbial ecological communities.

In one gram of soil, it is estimated that there are between a million and billion microorganisms, including tens of thousands of species. Of these microorganisms, we only know one species in 1 million. We can only cultivate a few species individually in a Petri cell, mainly species related to humans or cows. The ecological role of most species is unknown. We want to help open the book of this abundant life of which we only know the cover [1], hoping for repercussions in ecology, agronomy, but also for the agri-food industry or health.

Financial support

• MITI CNRS, project 80PRIME SPECTROSOL, pluridisciplinary project ECOBIO (Rennes) – Institut FOTON (Rennes). Collaboration with IEMN Lille.

Research staff involved

Research engineers, researchers and professors

PhD and post-doc

To learn more…

• Francois Bondu, Goulc’Hen Loas, Ludovic Frein, Cyril Hamel, Anthony Carré, et al.. An optical instrument for the submillimeter spectroscopy of the volatile metabolome. 2019 44th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), Sep 2019, Paris, France. pp.19149312. ⟨hal-02292414⟩