ERC Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2014-CoG

Plant and Animal Genome Evolution (PAGE)

Evolutionary dynamics and genetic basis of dominance: sporophytic self-incompatibility in the Brassicaceae as a case study.

Evolutionary dynamics of genes controlling meiotic recombination in polyploid crop plants (DUPLIC)

The main objective of this project is to develop the first tools dedicated to European CWD prions, in terms of detection in tissues from infected animals and characterization of the risks for human health.

Using chloroplast genome sequences (cpDNA), our research group has carried out phylogenomic analyses that resulted in strongly supported trees, providing a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships in the Malpighiales and the Fabids' clade...

This project aims at characterizing the genetic basis and timing of loss of SI in the self-fertilizing crucifer species Capsella orientalis using complementary approaches (long read sequencing of multiple full-length S-haplotypes, genetic mapping, population genomics and expression analyses).

The proposed research will contribute to new resources for the sunflower genomics community including new draft genome assemblies and annotations for wild Helianthus annuus and an early domesticate. We will also test our hypothesis that copy number variation has been an important contributor to sunflower domestication, and by combining this knowledge with our gene expression datasets and published trait mapping datasets, we may highlight variants useful for further improvement of agronomic traits like yield, oil content, and stress resistance. Finally, this project will test whether the applications of optical mapping can be extended to identifying large chromosomal variants that distinguish pools of DNAs.