EU27 and USA leadership in fruit and vegetable research: a bibliometric study from 2000 to 2009

UMR 1334 AGAP : Equipe AFEF ‘Architecture et Fonctionnement des Espèces fruitières’ ; Team AFFS ‘Architecture and Functioning of Fruit Species’We performed an analysis of published literature related to fruit and vegetable and indexed in the Web of Science®, covering the period 2000–2009. The EU27 and the USA are the two leading actors in terms of number of fruit and vegetable articles published. This paper compares their publication outputs using bibliometric methods. We assessed the fruit and vegetable species, topics (from Web of Science® categories), countries and institutions involved. The top species, topics and institutions are ranked according to their number of publications. Collaboration networks between countries were mapped to visualize the intensity of the relationships involved in international fruit and vegetable research and to obtain an overall picture of the fruit and vegetable research landscape. These results can be useful for policy makers

The rhizosphere: Molecular interactions between microorganisms and roots.

The rhizosphere has a large impact on plant performance in several ways. A stand-specific, more or less high diversity of microorganisms not only supports the plant in the acquisition of water and nutrients, but also modulates its ability to cope with pathogens. This diversity, however, has to be maintained and thus causes a considerable drain of photoassimilates, which are then not available for shoot development. In this chapter, we try to explain why the considerable allocation of carbon to the root system is a “wise” decision by the plant. We thus focus on the function of root-associated bacteria and their relevance for plant growth and development of disease resistance, and deliver data on the molecular basis of the root–fungus symbiosis (mycorrhiza)