The goal of environmental policies is to mitigate the inefficiency due to the lack of property rights on natural resource (e.g. water) and the environment. Several regulatory instruments can be used to restore efficiency including environmental taxes, subsidies for adopting greener technologies, emissions or extraction quotas, which can eventually be exchanged in an organised market, among others. Environmental policies impacts individuals' welfare. Stakeholders are sensitive to the assignment of the costs and benefits of environmental policies. They might oppose policy reforms if they believe that the burden of better environmental practices is perceived as unequally divided among them. Therefore, to improve its political feasibility, the choice of an environmental policy may be guided not only by collective welfare considerations, i.e. economic efficiency and environmental impacts, but also by its distributional consequences. The goal of this project is to assess the performance of environmental policies in terms of efficiency and fairness. The methodology combines an axiomatic approach to fairness with game theory and experimental economics. We apply fairness principles defined by axioms on specific environmental economics and natural resource models. We find out which allocations are 'fair' in these models according to the defined axioms. We then introduce environmental policies in the models. Each policy provides specific incentives to stakeholders. For instance, quotas set upper bounds on emissions, taxes increase the cost of resource extraction or reduces the opportunity cost of pollution abatement. The environmental policies lead to equilibrium allocations than can be ranked according to the fairness criteria. We test those environmental policies in the lab with a simplified version of the model played by subjects (students). For each policy, we compare the theoretical prediction and the experimental results. More importantly, we compare the performance of environmental policies in term of fairness and efficiency. The outcome of the project should be a better understanding on the efficiency and fairness properties of environmental policies.

In Gram negative plant pathogenic bacteria hrp genes are essential for the establishment of plant disease. These genes encode a protein secretion system that governs injection of bacterial proteins into plant cells. These proteins, known as effectors, are the primary determinants for plant diseases. Analysis of the genome sequence of R. solanacearum allowed us to identify a repertoire of over 80 effectors in this organism. The present project aims to the characterisation of the mode of action as well as the identification of the corresponding target proteins in Arabidopsis of a particular family of effectors: the GALA proteins. There are seven GALA genes in R. solanacearum. We have shown that among the seven GALAs, GALA6 and GALA7 are required for R. solanacearum to promote disease on Arabidopsis. GALAs have an F-box domain and LRR, a structure which is reminiscent of the plant F-box proteins. In Arabidopsis, these proteins together with other subunits form the SCF-type E3 ubiquitin ligase. This type of enzyme is a key step in the ubiquitinate/proteasome specific protein degradation since this E3-ligase will specifically add ubiquitin moieties to target proteins. We propose to study the targets recognized and potentially ubiquitinated and degraded in the plant cell by GALA6 and GALA7. A candidate target, potentially involved in plant innate immunity, identified by yeast-two hybrid, will be tested for GALA6/7-dependent in vitro ubiquitination. By identifying the ubiquitinated targets, we will understand how GALA6 and GALA7 participate in the control of R. solanacearum's pathogenicity. We aim at providing both the knowledge for future new crop plant resistance strategies and a framework for the understanding of the mode of action of a type effector present in a diverse range of pathogenic bacteria pathogenic to plants or to humans ...

Lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCOs) secreted by rhizobia are essential for establishment of the nitrogen fixing symbiosis with their host legume. In addition to the well known effects on legumes, LCOs have also been reported to elicit responses in non-legumes and LCOs are now sold for corn treatment, as plant growth stimulating factors. I have detected LCO binding proteins in non legume cell cultures and have observed non symbiotic responses following expression of putative LCO receptors in non legumes. The objective of the project is to identify and determine the role of LCO binding proteins in non legumes and to understand the non symbiotic function of putative LCO receptors. I plan to purify proteins cross-linked to LCOs and analyse them by MS/MS and then to validate their function in LCO binding and in eliciting LCO effects in non legumes. Concerning the non symbiotic functions of putative LCO receptors, I plan to identify the nature of stimuli inducing the responses and the signalling pathway leading to these responses.